SNUG wins Outstanding New Idea at South West Business Edge Awards 2016

The Ecomotive SNUG protoype is gaining momentum in attention from all parts of the world, this time the South West business community recognised the SNUG as best new business idea to deliver a solution to affordable housing, announced as  Outstanding New business Idea for 2016.

A prototype site has been given the go ahead for a site in Redcliffe Way, Bristol, with a planning application already submitted. Once built, the house will include an exhibition space, as Director of Ecomotive, Jackson Moulding, explains:

“With the prototype in place we want to hear from everyone about how they believe housing should be created in the future, and whether future residents want to have a say over what is built for them, and if they want to be involved in the design and construction.”

The Ecomotive design was entered into the Edge awards by Tom Malken, Senior Architect at Barton Willmore who have project support with the design drawings and evolution of the SNUG prototype.

The modular structural design is based on a simple ‘o-beam’ design, which is commonly used on the continent in places such as Amsterdam.

Residents choose the number, size and arrangement of prefabricated modules for the size of home they need. The then part-finished modules are delivered to site for either residents to complete themselves according to their own specification or can be finished by the SNUG team.

This simple, adaptable and cost-effective approach merges the advantages of prefab design with self-build. It’s easy to create terraces or apartment blocks by stacking the modules, and they lend themselves well to more collective ways of living, such as co-housing, where homes can be smaller as people also have access to shared living spaces.

The SNUG Home has been designed with a number of features in mind, it’s an efficient and sustainable dwelling with creativity at the core for its residents. The walls are super insulated with blown cellulose made of recycled newspaper, creating a simple well-insulated box to keep energy bills to a minimum. Whilst the top floor windows are set back to provide an additional terrace area and provide important shading to the upstairs area to prevent overheating, a chamfered south facing balcony/canopy with strong accents of colour provides shading to the living space below whilst creating visual interest particularly when part of a terrace composition.

As appetite for alternative housing is increasing, and although design and ease of construction is vital for self-build homes, I believe that as prices of homes and land constantly go up, we still have work to do on changing people’s perceptions of how housing should look and indeed work.