Common of Houses Competition Moves Britain's Politicians into Mole Holes

“Common Houses”, the design entry by Jude Barber and Phil Zoechbauer of Glasgow-based Collective Architecture, has recently been announced winner of the Common of Houses Competition.

This British competition, open to all designers, asked to come up with creative (and sometimes bizarre) solutions to the Member of Parliament’s two home problem. The competition brief explains this problem: “Instead of each MP having to go out and buy two homes, one in London for their Westminster duties and one in their Constituency for their day to day work we could remove the whole problem with the State providing them with accommodation - no second home allowance required, no temptation to purchase duck islands, instead its all owned by us and the MP’s can just simply get on with their jobs, everyone’s a winner.”

A panel of judges which also included Kieran Long and Ken Livingstone reviewed all the entries in mid-August and chose their favorite for a prize.

Winner:

Common Houses by Jude Barber and Phil Zoechbauer (Collective Architecture)

“Our proposal questions the need for 1st and 2nd MP’s homes. With the Gap between rich and poor widening, political disenchantment increasing and public ownership diminishment the MPS expenses fiasco scratches at the surface of our political crisis. Our proposal reinforces the need for elected representatives to live and govern with their local area.

It suggests that we create local places of assembly for debate, protest, discussion and action. The local and regional assemblies would be connected by a renationalised transport network of rail + ferry Westminster would cease to exist in its current form. Elected representatives would greater reflect the population (Young people, elderly, etc.)”

1st Runner Up:

Redacted Residencies by Neil McGuire

“Redacted Residences works in the following way: Our proposed starting point for the design of each MP’s constituency residence is their expenses claim (1) from the previous year. Using augmented reality (2) and optical character recognition (ocr) (3) technology this expense claim would be placed in front of a camera attached to a computer.

This computer would process the redacted areas (black squares) and the words left on the sheet, and using a bespoke architectural programme based on the principle of “disproportional representation”, create a 3D model of their proposed residence. The disproportional representation algorithm would basically interpret large areas of black as being less honest, and the optical character recognition would identity words on the sheet and scan them against a database for their honesty and integrity (ie the words “moat” or “Diamond encrusted satellite dish” would be given low integrity rating).

No design generated by this programme would be “bad”, but MP’s prone to lavish lifestyles would be me with a much simpler and more austere residence, and conversely, those deemed more honest by the generative architectural software, would be rewarded with a bigger more lavishly appointed constituency home. All designs generated by this programme would be design to the principles of “affordance” as proposed by psychologist James, J. Gibons and later appropriated by Donald Norman, whereby they promote positive “action possibilities” latent in the environment. (4)

Part two of the proposal suggests that Westminster should be abandoned, and Parliament should become a mobile event, taking place in the village halls and community centres. The abandoned Houses of Parliament would be given over to a new National Museum of Lying.”

2nd Runner Up:

Ministers Mole Hole by Sarah Siena Edwards

“With the costs of creating a whole unit of accomodation for all 644 MP’s in central London being so high, I thought it would be a good idea to look for unused sites that have potential for such an application. Having heard about the Kingsway Telephone Exchange under London, I thought it would be the perfect solution to such a competition. Having its own supply of water and electricirt, and being at a steady 20 degrees, it already has the ability to sustain a large ocmmunity of hungry cold MP’s.

Kingsway Telephone Exchange has entrances directly onto the platforms at CHancery Lane Station, and has entrances onto the streets above, making it well placed to allow the MP’s to commute to work on the tube, and to have access to central London in walking distance. Each bedroom will house two MP’s, because they already have their own constituency home. Share and share alike.”

Here are some more exciting entries that we liked (for a complete list of entries, click here):

Images: Common of Houses