Skip to main content

10 winning ideas announced by NLA ! for Housing to help solve the London housing shortage.





Ten ideas have been selected as winners of the NLA international ideas competition New Ideas for Housing to help solve the London housing shortage.

From building on top of public buildings, to densifying the suburbs, living in shared homes to living on the water and creating a megacity in the suburbs, the 10 ideas provide a radical rethinking of current housing delivery models.

The winning ideas will be presented to the Greater London Authority who will study their feasibility as options for the future of the London housing market.

The competition, which launched in June 2015, invited anyone to submit an idea that would help to improve the speed, scale and quality of housing supply. Ideas could be small-scale or large in their ambition, but when brought together would make a significant contribution to the delivery of quality housing in the capital. It attracted over 200 entries from 16 countries around the world, from world-renowned architects, developers, consultants, local boroughs and everyday city residents.

100 shortlisted ideas were selected by an expert jury, including both practical and more radical ideas: from increasing self-building and co-housing, to building over infrastructure assets, infilling council estates, and densifying the suburbs. All winning and shortlisted ideas are on display in a free public exhibition New Ideas for Housing at the NLA galleries in The Building Centre from 15 October to 17 December.

The competition forms part of a wider NLA Insight Study examining London's housing crisis, supported by a three month programme of events.


Buoyant Starts Floating Homes © Baca Architects


​Low-cost housing on top of hospitals, schools and libraries


New-London-Architecture-winners_Baca-Architects_Buoyant-Starts_5_dezeen_936_0





The JuryToggle

Isabel Allen – Design Director, HAB Housing


Richard Blakeway, Deputy Mayor for Housing, Land and Property


Alison Brooks, Principal, Alison Brooks Architects


Robert Evans,Partner, Argent


Hilary French, Architectural Historian


Daniel Gray, Director, Engineering Excellence, Laing O’Rourke

Lord Bob Kerslake, Chair, London Housing Commission

Daniel Lovatt, Head of Property Development, Transport for London

Peter Murray, Chairman, New London Architecture

Further Reading 


Taylor Wimpey CEO Peter Redfern will lead Labour Housing Redfern Review

Homes for a Pound in Liverpool over 2750 apply 

TfL could help fix London’s housing Crisis as well as our trains

Zac Goldsmith: housing crisis number one priority in London – videos

why Uber is good for london

Labour conference: Sadiq Khan >"I'm going to make the election a referendum on London's housing crisis"

What Jeremy Corbyn's leadership victory may mean for housing policy in the UK

Marie's Question >Jeremy Corbyn The New Labour Leader takes his seat in the Houses of Parliament

Newly Elected Labour Candidate, for Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, outlines his Housing Policies

property eCommerce is booming !

Building Markets for the Good of People > BoE Open Forum

Bank of England concerns over Property buy-to-let boom

Government ministers and housing association leaders have negotiated a deal to extend the right-to-buy policy


How low can you go ? speech by Andy Haldane BoE Chief Economist

Three Truths about Finance - Governor of BoE - Mark Carney

Mortgage Lenders and Administrators statistics Bank of England Sept 2015

Government ministers and housing association leaders have negotiated a deal to extend the right-to-buy policy

How Nest is revolutionising smart homes with Nest Weave & Creating Most Comprehensive Developer Platform for the Home

How LG Smart Homes and nest.com are making the best use of IoT

ABB unveils intelligent voice-activated smart home system

Comments