9 minute read
a new fnancial systemHome as a service
Home as a service: a new fnancial system
Advertisement
-T. Carfrae, Deputy Chairman Arup-
(1) S. Witjes, R. Lozano (2016), Towards a more Circular Economy: Proposing a framework linking sustainable public procurement and sustainable business models, in Resources, Conservation and Recycling 112, 37–44, Elsevier, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. resconrec.2016.04.015 Success in terms of circularity can’t be reached just through the single architectural object. It is without saying thus that this project needs to be integrated into an urban framework that supports policies of Circular Economy. In this regard, the thesis fosters an innovative circular system of public procurement aimed at lowering the entry point to the housing market and saving resources and energy through strategies of regeneration and reuse.
. The role of urban policy-makers
Convening and consulting with industry stakeholders, incorporating Circular Economy criteria in public procurement tenders, and via asset management, city governments can incentivise circular economy practices in the built environment and reply at the same time to the increasing housing demand.
As a basic starting point, they shall incentivise the use of new construction techniques and smarter material choices by specifying these in public procurement tenders for construction projects, by encouraging resource-efcient construction and de-construction practices, through fscal measures and regulations on material management, and fnally by developing capacity-building programmes for construction workers to fulfl the required skills for the phase of deconstruction.
The most important task of city governments by the way would be the creation, under their responsibility, of a Public Material Bank aimed to hold informations about available materials and components, stock them when not reused immediately and manage the relation with the private production sector. In view of that, fnancing the research on buildings’ materials’ properties would be indicated to have reliable data concerning the available building stock of the city. Moreover, public sector shall be also responsible to train qualifed professionals managing the functioning of the bank and able to use technological tools, as BIM, required to grant circularity of processes and collaboration along the overall supply chain.
The creation of a public material bank would strenght collaboration between public and private sector, helping to solve problems of maintenance over time and securing, at the same time, economic benefts for both parties. (1) In this regard, even today, projects of retroftting or renovation are difcult to handle, involving a sensitive collaboration between a number of parties with, in many cases, conficting fnancial incentives and commercial interests. In this regard, the current stakeholder culture has caused over time long and expensive legal battles emerging from miscommunication and misalignment of incentives. Te technological improvement of buildings makes this issue more difcult, as it requires specifc types of knowledge that need to transfer barriers between the parties manufacturing these components, and those responsible for their maintenance and operation, with the risk to result in a suboptimal selection and operation of these systems. As a consequence, also the evaluation and monitoring of the ongoing benefts of a performance improvement project in terms of energy use, carbon footprint, resource consumption, or economic gains become challenging.
In this scenario, a traditional Business Model based on the concept of ownership has already shown its limits, as it involves the responsibility of the single owner, who is invested by huge fnancial and legal risks due to the growing chance of technical failure of the building and miscalculation of its total costs.
The idea is thus to smooth the fow of revenues to reduce risk and push investors to focus on a diversifed investment portfolio rather than on quick turnovers.
With Design for Disassembly and Adaptability in mind, based on the life expectancy of each building layer, the Business Model of Leasing could help to solve these-long term dynamics, paving the collaboration between producers and clients and promoting changeability of components. It would support in fact technical innovation; enhance high-quality products, as they’d be selected based on durability and performance rather than their initial cost; promote components’ reuse and reprocessing.
. The role of the users
In this scenario, thus, the concept of housing ownership changes, shifting toward accessibility and enhancing a new fnancial public housing system. First of all, given a fxed and permanent structure, the client entering the public housing market would be asked to choose how many square meters he wants to buy.
Secondly, he could have the possibility to decide how many services (bathroom and kitchen) to include into the apartment and where, according to the potentialities of fexibility ofered by the structure.
Ten, fnally, he could shape the rest of the spaces, through the leasing of different types of space plan components, that he could choose as from a catalogue.
The client would thus pay the accessibility to each of the chosen components, depending on its performance and durability: it’s the same concept of paying light or electric bills, he pays just the service he uses. In this way, the initial cost of the unit would be lower, as the overall price of the unit would be distributed over time.
Once the lease ceases, different scenarios could take place. Te built social housing unit could be sold as it is and be ready to be reused, (housing components due to leasing strategies, shouldn’t be in need of additional maintenance), without any expenditure in economic and energy terms. A passage of accessibility, that would avoid further expenditures as well, could imply a dynamic of swapping. Two users living in the same building could meet their mutual needs and decide to swipe their apartments. Surely the scale of the project would infuence the success of this type of dynamic. When the needs of the new user are diferent, instead, he could decide to change completely
the spaces of his unit and shape them diversily, in the same available surface. In case of lowering of housing demand, the fexible components of the unit could be dismantled and stored into the building materials’ bank, thus defning their current state and performance, reporting feedbacks in terms of operative service and eventually operating their consequent technological improvement. In this way, the public procurement process of social housing could potentially close a
regenerative loop, as in the best scenario these components, once certifed, could be reused as they are either into new buildings or in retroftting interventions, with a paradigm shift from reductionism to the Cradle to Cradle. High-tech non-structural components, instead, could be periodically maintained and technologically improved, as a way to ensure high performances over the entire operative life of the building on one side and on the other to get periodical feedbacks of the product to further improve it. In this regard, currently, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, households on average spend around 21% of their gross adjusted disposable income on keeping a roof over their heads, (for periodical maintenance) (2).
. Positive implications
From the demand point of view, this new fnancial system could make Social Housing more affordable, or better, more tailor-made, in economic and functional terms. Tanks to the adoption of building components’ leasing, the initial investment required for the construction of high performance building units could highly decrease and the user could have the possibility to split the cost of services provided by the housing unit over time, depending on his/her income.
Moreover, enlarging the number of possible renters or buyers would increase urban density and potentially activate social contacts that could enhance collaboration and thus innovation. In this regard, dynamics of spatial sharing could also contribute to implement the afordability of the housing units, blurring the concept of individual ownership from a marketable point of view.
Functionally speaking, the house would always be potentially updated to the users’ needs, due to its spatial and components’ fexibility, while the presence of a permanent fgure, as the Municipality, could help users’ to familiarise with these technologies, to use them in the correct way, enhancing sustainable living habits.
For the supply side, this new model could open several new opportunities, especially regarding a new relation of integration and collaboration between the public and the private sector through the role of the public one into the Material Bank organisation.
An agreement between the two sectors could potentially avoid the need for intrusive and expensive episodes of maintenance due to natural obsolescence of buildings’ components, as they would be periodically updated.
Te creation of a Material Bank would also push the Municipality to have a deep knowledge
of its spatial and material resources, hopefully resulting in their better management. Tis would also result in avoiding situations of building vacancy while replying to the existing housing demand in an exact way. In this regard, just in United Kingdom, datas show that today 49% owner-occupied homes are ‘under-occupied’ (at least two bedrooms more than stated need) (3).
Te question city governments need to answer thus is the feasibility of this big new fnancial model. Surely, it would demand energy and resources for the training of new working fgures, for the development of specifc reliable technological tools and for an overall process of burocracy digitalisation. Moreover, it would probably require some legal adjustment to make
(2) OECD, Better Life Index. Housing, http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/ housing/ (3) Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2019), English Housing Survey. Headline Report, 201819, National Statistics, https://assets. publishing.service.gov.uk/government/ uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/ fle/860076/2018-19_EHS_Headline_ Report.pdf
Tailor-made social housing
Fostering urban density and thus social contacts and potential innovation
House adaptation to the users’ needs
Contact between the public and the private sector
Knowledge about the city resources from the Municipality the stipulation of leasing contracts, especially when related to social housing, easier. Notwithstanding, today, that we’re facing a period of crisis from diferent sides and the pandemic puts a further strain, is possibly the time to begin this ecological and economic transition.
Visions always need time to get accomplished: Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Private Public
The positive implications of the fnancial model fostered by Home as a Service
Home as a service New circular building model
Adaptable and flexible
Design for Disassemble
Replicability
Modularity Independent Building Systems
Different systems’ life expectancy
Prefabbrication
Components Materials
The project envisions a new construction system based on the indipendency of each of the 6 systems the building is made of in order to provide flexibility, adaptability and still durability when needed, without compromising the principles of Design for Disassembly.
. Affordable and inclusive . Policentric . Adaptation to whatever type of urban context;
. A new aesthetic for Design for disassembly
. Qualitative housing
. Better indoor comfort
. Extention of the so called existenzminimum. Especially today when homes also become workspaces, a space “plus” shall be a right
Liveable Double Skin Facade
Prefab Bolted Concrete Structure
. Affordable and fast construction system
. Flexible space plan
. Space adaptability over the entire operative life of the building
. Durability in view of the system’s life expectancy
. Reusability due to its material and bolted connections
