Jan 24–Apr 7, 2018

Saving The City

RSHP highlight the need for a revolution in housing supply with well-designed, factory-produced, fast-build, high-performance, affordable homes
Address
Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA Map
Hours
Wed–Fri 11 am–5 pm, Sat–Sun 12 am–5 pm

One in four people across the world are homeless, or live in slums or other substandard housing. The housing crisis, not only in the UK, but in Europe and around the world, is threatening to destroy the mix and viability of our cities. Decent housing should be seen as a human right, like food and healthcare, and as an essential element of the compact city. By 2050 two thirds of the global population will live in cities. Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners were invited to the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia curated by Alejandro Aravena. Their installation, called ‘Saving the City’, is now represented at the Architecture Centre in Bristol and presents thirty years of factory built housing designed by the practice and highlights the need for a revolution in housing supply, with well-designed, factory-produced, fast-build, high-performance, affordable homes.

The exhibition features a number of projects across the practice’s history from The ZipUp House, designed for a 1969 competition for the ‘House of Today’ which was the first of the practice’s schemes for prefabricated housing, to current schemes Y:Cube and PLACE/Ladywell which provide move on accommodation for those in emergency housing in London. Tree House is the latest volumetric housing project developed by RSHP, to provide low-cost homes that can be rapidly assembled and deployed. Designed in response to the theme of the 2016 Venice Biennale ‘Reporting from the Front’ Tree House proposes a concept for flexible housing that can be manufactured from a simple kit of parts using uncomplicated tools and adapted to suit varied sites or circumstances as housing need demands.

This exhibition is accompanied by a small foyer exhibition presenting a snapshot of housing delivery in Bristol, Mapping New Homes in Bristol, as well as a programme of events on the theme of housing, including a keynote talk with Ivan Harbour, RSHP on Home Building.