Adapting owner-occupied dwellings in the UK: lessons for the future

Abstract

With 80% of the 2050 housing stock already built, the UK has at least 19 million existing homes in need of low carbon retrofit. Practice-theory-based studies have argued that these retrofits must be understood in the context of wider home adaptations and routine practices of dwelling. Therefore, changes in practices caused by the Covid-19 pandemic create a gap in the knowledge regarding the impact on home adaptations and integration of low carbon retrofit. This research compares two stages of interviews: the first undertaken in 2015-16 (30 households), investigating home adaptations and the practices of dwelling they supported. The second stage undertaken in summer 2021 (nine re-interviewees) asking participants to reflect on how their practices of dwelling had changed and how their homes had accommodated this. Rigorous line-by-line coding of the relationships between attributes of the home and practices of dwelling allows comparison between stages, offering original practice-theory-based insights into the implications for home adaptations. The findings show that practices of homeworking in particular placed great spatial and environmental pressure on the homes of growing families. If continued, these practices would create increased demand for dedicated workspaces, and significant opportunities to integrate fabric improvements and low carbon technologies into these adaptations. 298 Hipwood Buildings and Cities

‘Unprecedented times’: historical narratives of public health in the built environment

“…2 At building level, the suitability and adaptability of homes was re-evaluated as they were forced to accommodate not only established practices of dwelling, but also to provide opportunities for homeworking, schooling and online socialising. 3 Shared, or public, buildings and spaces became an assault course of virus-harbouring surfaces to be negotiated, resulting in increased interest in the antibacterial properties of sunlight. 4 As measures to reduce the spread of the virus, such as lockdowns and mandatory mask wearing were enforced, attention increasingly turned to how the burden of these measures, and the impact of the virus more broadly, was not equally distributed.…”