Wayne Hemingway judges housing competition

Students from Northumbria University were competing today for a chance to impress Wayne Hemingway with their design ideas for housing adaptations.

Next month, Hemingway, the famous British fashion designer, will judge the third year design student’s ideas, in a competition that is challenging entrants to find ways of making homes more suitable for older people and people with a disability.

Some 36 students have entered pieces of work into the ‘Designed for Life’ competition, which is being organised by the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC).

Before having their work assessed by Hemingway and a number of other celebrity judges, the students had to impress a regional panel of design and sheltered housing experts at today’s first round of judging at Northumbria University.

Stacey Houston, adaptations project manager at Your Homes Newcastle (YHN) was among the regional judges. She said: “YHN receives 600 referrals for adaptations every year and we’re constantly looking for new specifications and ways to make the homes of our tenants more functional and aesthetically pleasing.”

The students whose work has impressed the judges the most will now be selected to go forward to the final round of judging in April, where Wayne Hemingway will review their work.

He said: “Our generation faces significant challenges in the next 10 to 20 years with homes that are poorly suited to adaptation.

“We are far more likely than our grandparents to live past 70, but an unwelcome truth is that we are very likely to have some kind of disability that will affect our mobility. This could mean anything from trouble climbing stairs through to a loss of sight which can make a poorly designed house not just ugly but dangerous.

“I’ve long been committed to improving the design quality of new homes and prove that quantity and effective adaptable design really can go hand in hand. The challenge is to make sure that this is the norm rather than the exception and I’m really looking forward to seeing the Northumbria University students show what can be achieved when thought and commitment are put into the design process.”

The students are competing in two categories which are new product designs based on specific areas within existing adaptation products and longer term developments that target functions, which occur in the home and that pose the greatest challenge for the elderly and disabled people, such as bathing.

The winners from each category will be awarded a cash prize and have their design ideas showcased at the NHC’s annual adaptations conference at York Racecourse on 18 May.