Micro magnificent: affordable homes

The issue of affordable housing is close to the hearts of young architects Stuart Piercy and Richard Conner. "In our office of 30, only one person owns their own flat," says Piercy. Like so many thousands of Londoners, the 29-year-old Piercy, along with Conner, 31, both earning in the region of £30,000, are finding it difficult to get a foothold on London's property ladder. But instead of despairing, they've used their plight as inspiration for the Microflat.

This neatly tailored 32sq m one-bedroom pad, complete with balcony, has been conceived by Piercy Conner Architects as a stackable, self-contained module. The plan is to build blocks of Microflats to sell at no more than £100,000 each. It's an idea that has interested developers and talks are in progress on two projects, one in Hackney, the other in Southwark. "Design ideas have been drawn from places as diverse as boats and caravans, Japanese capsule hotels, even trains," explains Piercy. "I took a train overnight to Milan recently, sleeping in a wonderfully designed and comfortable couchette that demonstrated how to make the best use of an extremely small space. " Ideas on the latest prefabrication technologies come from the Berlin Stock Exchange and Zürich Airport: two projects Piercy and Conner got involved in when they worked for high-tech architect Nicholas Grimshaw. They set up their own practice 18 months ago and are working on housing schemes around the capital.

The Microflat design emerged from an initial study of a standard, turn-of-the-century London terrace. "We looked at four houses and saw that, with good space planning, it would be possible to make each into six small apartments. It was clear that, rather than chopping up existing buildings, the design would be far better if we started from scratch," explains Conner.

First plans were for a smaller unit of 25sqm. "Then we discovered that delivery lorries could carry a module as large as 32sqm and the production costs were very similar." The building cost is expected to be around £50,000 per flat, about the same as a luxury executive car. Walls and floor are constructed of insulated panels, and space inside flows from the bedroom, with sliding screen wall, past the curved utility module containing shower and loo, to the kitchen/living space and on to the balcony. "All finishes and fittings are to the highest specification; these are desirable, high-quality spaces that will be durable and hold their value," says Piercy.

Keeping the selling price at around £100,000 is crucial in targeting first-time buyers. "We could have built several smaller projects by now, but in central-London locations and for a much higher selling price," says Piercy. "However, that really is not the aim. The idea isn't to make bijou pieds-à-terre pads, it is to address the needs of people like us." For those reasons, mixed in with economy of scale, the architects have calculated that the minimum development should be around 36 units, but ideally 60 or more. Location is vital: buyers need to be near good transport hubs.

Among projects under discussion are plans to work with supermarket developers, where retailing space occupies the ground floor, possibly alongside a gym, with the Microflats sitting on the floors above.

Says Piercy: "One of the major stumbling blocks is that current planning policy hasn't kept up with the way that London is changing."

Perhaps the Microflat will be included as part of this summer's consultation on Mayor Ken Livingstone's Draft London Plan. In this the Mayor anticipates London's population will grow by 700,000 in the next 15 years. Key among the proposals in the plan is the building of a further 23,000 homes per annum, half of which should be affordable.

Piercy Conner Architects: 020 7490 4300. For more information on the Draft London Plan visit www.london.gov.uk.