Kevin McCloud and "Happiness, Architecture and Beauty"

Kevin McCloud is well known as the presenter of the very popular Channel 4 programme, Grand Designs, in which adventurous and often glamorous building projects are featured and masterminded by McCloud..

HAB's Triangle development in Swindon

However, McCloud is also a critic of mass building as being “unimaginative, overpriced, undersized and resistant to technical improvement”.  Six years ago he founded a company which he named “HAB” (Happiness, Architecture, Beauty”), with the aim of building better affordable housing.  

HAB's first project. completed in late 2011,  is the Triangle in Swindon, a development of 42 houses.  Rowan Moore in the Observer wrote about this project in his article of 20.11.11.  McCloud is now working with the Green Square building association group  on projects in Stroud, Chippenham and Oxford.  Their joint website is www.haboakus.co.uk.

The Triangle 

The emphasis in Swindon is on quite conventional terraced housing but with a sustainable approach (using hemp based product for the walls, chimney-like ventilators on the roof and open spaces designed to soak up excess rainwater, for example).   The internal design of the houses features small and thoughtful variations from the standard mass-build.  Bedrooms are placed away from corners to give more wardrobe space, windows are larger than standard, and ground floor ceilings are higher (even though, because of the need to stay within budget,  second-floor ceilings are lower.   Porches contain bike racks.  Each house is equipped with a “shimmy” screen, similar to an iPad, which is a way of communicating with others on the development.

However, and again rather surprisingly considering his TV profile, McCloud is more interested in the social aspect of housing than in building radical architecture.  “Anyone can build an eco- home but it does’nt solve anything.  What’s more interesting is the way people live and behave”.  The Triangle is landscaped to encourage people to cooperate and communicate, with allotments and poly-tunnels, for example.  McCloud considers landscaping to be an integral part of design in his aim to make people happy. 

The people who live in the Triangle are a mix of those who are on the local authority’s list of those in need of new homes, and others who pay a greater percentage of the market rent or who are aiming to buy their houses.  The project is therefore different from the usual privately owned majority on most new developments, and has a quite different ideology from the "housing for investment" belief.

It would take a gregarious and tolerant individual to live and cooperate fully with his or her neighbours to the extent envisaged by McCloud.  His definition of happiness as such a close knit community is admirable but might not suit everyone. McCloud does not describe his design process, and whether the future inhabitants were consulted. 

In 2012 the Triangle won an RIBA Award for excellence.  However, there have also been teething problems, with residents complaining about mouse infestation and poor building quality.  There is evidence that self build is a more satisfying process than ready-made housing and leads to greater commitment.