We held our annual South West Design Conference on Wednesday 22 November for residents of housing providers across the region to come together and share their views on how the homes of the future should look.
This year’s conference focused on ‘Future Homes’ looking at the way the development industry is shifting towards new regulations and standards, bringing the housing sector to a brighter, sustainable future.
Residents and staff from PCH, Westward Housing, Magna Housing, Cornerstone Housing and Teign Housing joined us as PCH Board member Debbie Roche hosted the conference and started by presenting an award to the development with the highest levels of tenant satisfaction.
That accolade went to Westward Housing and their scheme: Pridham Close, Bideford, which was accepted by Samantha Novak, the Development Manager for this scheme.
PCH Head of Development Andrew Lawrie presented feedback from last year’s Resident Satisfaction Survey, which is sent to all residents/staff who attended the conference, as well as residents moving into one of our new-build homes.
Future homes and building to encourage a healthy life was one of the key themes as Adam Darby from BDP gave a presentation to the attendees.
During an interactive session, delegates split up into groups to discuss and feedback on the newly completed PCH scheme: The Oaks, Woolwell. Residents were provided with floorplans and photos of the site. They were asked to not only to feedback from their own views, but also from a persona that was assigned to them as the start of the session.
After lunch, delegates continued to discuss the site from their personas.
The session really made people think, with residents discussing the property and site, providing feedback on what they thought was positive and negative. It gave PCH development staff and staff from the other housing associations a lot to think about and consider for future designs.
Debbie Roche said: “'As with previous years, the Residents’ Design Conference was one of my PCH highlights.
“With the focus on future homes, the presentations and activities were thought-provoking and enlightening. It was incredible to learn just how much has to be taken into consideration when planning new homes - regulations, materials, heat sources, ecology, external space, internal/external furnishings, and so much more.
The topic stimulated much discussion and many questions which, suggests to me, there is a great level of interest in the provision of appropriate, environmentally friendly, carefully considered, homes for our future generations.”
