Design your dream Sussex home

A competition for architects to dream up innovative designs for homes on challenging patches of council land across Brighton & Hove has been unveiled.

Brighton & Hove City Council, in partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), is launching a design competition to develop innovative designs for four of its smaller sites.

The competition is being run within the council’s New Homes for Neighbourhoods Programme, to bring forward much needed new homes on council housing land. 

Included in the programme are  former garage and car parking sites on council housing land at Hinton Close, Rotherfield Crescent and Natal Road, which are in need of regeneration. 

A small council owned commercial parking site in Frederick Street within the North Laine area has also been included to add a more urban dimension to the competition. 

The competition presents an ideal opportunity for Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SME’s) generally, as well as practices based in the Brighton and Hove area, to showcase their design skills.

The initial phase of the competition will require architects to submit their designs anonymously.  Five concept designs for each site will then be shortlisted for further development at the second phase. 

The winners of the second phase will receive an equal honorarium payment and will be invited to develop their design ideas further.

The teams will then make a presentation to the Judging Panel at a clarification interview, who will select the winning teams for each site.

If the winning practices are able to demonstrate a track record in delivery and that their proposal is viable, then they will have an opportunity to see their designs built out.

Nick Hibberd, Brighton & Hove City Council’s Head of City Regeneration, said, “These are challenging sites to develop due to their size, context or restrictive access.  However, they are typical of many of the sites available for new homes in the city.

“Brighton & Hove City Council is keen to support the growth and development of smaller architectural practices.  We hope that the competition will inspire them to produce some innovative designs for these sites in ways which will be engaging and entirely relevant to residents living in the area”. 

Sam Smith, the council’s Estate Regeneration Programme Manager, was also excited to see the entries.

“We are delighted to be working alongside the RIBA, who will bring their extensive knowledge and experience of delivering successful competitions of this type.  It is a very exciting project which I hope will deliver creative solutions for some of our smaller development sites. 

“If the competition pilot is successful, we will be using it to bring forward other smaller sites from the New Homes for Neighbourhoods programme”.

For further details of the Competition and how to enter please visit: ribacompetitions.com

The closing date for Brighton & Hove City Council receiving the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire is Friday 24 April at 5pm.