Raise the Roof
2019 – 2023
R A I S E T H E R O O F began in response to the local need for affordable housing in Bridport, West Dorset. Confounded by the climate crisis and economic uncertainty, we started looking for more imaginative ways of building community resilience, beginning with the people and materials of the place.
Through a series of collaborations with designer-makers, architects, artists, economists, students, naturalists, builders, councillors and others, our aim was to demonstrate the ecological and social potential of creating new spaces and places from locally-sourced skills, ideas and materials.
The focus of the project was about developing a model for locally rooted manufacturing and the construction of affordable housing, linked to regenerative land use. The project aims to support the production of sustainable resources (e.g. timber and hemp), create local infrastructure for processing and fabrication, and enable communities to build affordable housing drawing on these local materials and local infrastructure.
The project addresses three interlocking crises:
- The crisis in the housing sector across the UK, characterised by lack of affordability, sustainability and security.
- The crisis of livelihoods in the UK’s towns, characterised by job insecurity, lack of access to skills, training, and lack of resources to support the start up or expansion of local enterprises.
- The ecological crisis, encompassing climate change, biodiversity loss and poor management of the natural environment, including agricultural land and woodlands, combined with pollution, resource depletion and the unsustainable nature of present production and consumption.
Prototype of a Row House
2022
The Denhay Prototype is a physical demonstration and study of locally sourced materials and off-site construction techniques in collaboration with University of Plymouth and Bridport Area Community Housing (BACH.)
Tiny House Build 1.0
2020
WCA launched a series of free construction training programmes for economically inactive and underemployed people in West Dorset to develop carpentry and construction skills. Over two week-long courses we hosted 14 participants to learn building skills in the construction of a tiny home.
Tiny House Build 2.0
2021
Tiny House Build 2.0 is a part-training part-research project that introduces digitally fabricated elements through a necessary rebuild of an earlier tiny home to fit road-safety laws and end-use requirements.
Research & Reports:
Final Report: Raise the Roof
Hemp & Flax Field Trials FiPL Project Report
A Bioregional Approach to Building in the South West
Propositions for Bridport
Background Research on Housing in Bridport
The Terrestrial Town
Related Projects:
RAISE THE ROOF was a partnership between Common Ground, Turner-prize winning design collective Assemble, community-development organisation Wessex Community Assets, the Dorset Arts Development Company, Bridport Area Community Housing, Plymouth University and Bridport Town Council. Funding has been secured from the Nationwide Foundation, Friends Provident Foundation, the Arts Council and the Connected Everything programme.