sustainable & affordable
community-focused housing
Fabric develop community-focused sustainable housing projects.
We're a not-for-profit Community Interest Company facilitating/designing/developing housing projects in urban and rural settings throughout the UK with a specific focus to allow them to be co-designed by the residents, ensuring they are affordable and sustainable.
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Our projects also promote aspects of co-housing and enable the inclusion of other community-related resources and services (such as shared renewable energy, permaculture and healthcare).
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We also offer design and construction skills training workshops - click here for more details.
who is this for
Our clients range from individual community groups to Councils...
Our clients vary from individuals simply wanting to build their own homes in better communities to Local Authorities needing to offer more affordable housing.
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Whilst it’s commendable that a group of individuals can come together and create their own housing community (defined as community-led housing), there are a number of problems. Groups generally consist of people without the relevant skills or experience; they lack time and resources so projects can take literally years to come to fruition; some members “burn out” whilst trying to balance day-to-day living and working full time; and it’s difficult to identify suitable land in the right location that appeals to an already established group.
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We’re offering something different.
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We provide a hybrid community-led housing solution that is a fast-track alternative to the more traditional route, aiming to make sustainable & community living more mainstream.
Our projects provide community-focused, affordable, ethical and sustainable homes on a much wider scale, and much faster, reducing the conventional route of delivering community-led projects from an average of 5 years to potentially just 1 year.
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The residents have a say in the design of their community. There is the opportunity to have a true mix of housing types and sizes with a huge emphasis on Self and Custom Build homes. The community is also offered different options for the legal entity, ownership and governance of the project, such as forming a Community Land Trust (CLT), a Co-operative Society or Community Benefit Society.
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Plus there is the possibility to include further community-focused elements, such as shared energy design and implementation; health & wellbeing services (including social prescribing); ecology & permaculture facilities; skills/knowledge sharing and behaviour change workshops; and commercial/business (start-up) support.
the process
We've simplified the process to make it much faster...
how we differ
Fabric co-ordinate the project with a team of experienced professional consultants...
not-for-profit - being a Community Interest Company (CIC) we’re a social enterprise supporting the communities that we’re creating and then reinvesting any surplus earnings back into making our services even more efficient and therefore affordable
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location first - we start by identifying suitable land and determine the full scope of what can be achieved, creating a better match for the new residents and the existing neighbourhood
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understanding the new community - we use a unique set of tools and questionnaires designed to check the compatibility of a community group and clearly understand their social, design and service requirements, plus any special needs
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efficient co-design - we have developed a series of fast-track co-design workshops that draw out exactly what the community are looking for, whilst ensuring compatibility between the individual households
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more home choice - we offer (and encourage) a true mix of housing types directly responding to the community needs
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a broad range of excellent options - we draw on the strengths of our team of consultants and service providers all of whom have an excellent track record offering a very high quality and sustainable range of options, during the both the development of the project and throughout its occupancy
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professional-led - overall we offer a very structured & efficient approach that includes post occupancy testing as standard which can help to develop a project over time, but also feeds back into our own system, creating a continually improving service that adheres to the Theory of Change (ToC) process