Rethinking the way we live: custom-build

Custom-build has been a mainstay of housing markets for decades in countries such as Japan, Australia, Belgium and Germany, where around 60 per cent of new homes constructed annually are now built by the people who will live in them.

The UK appetite for custom-build is huge with a ready market of over six million people looking to get involved in a custom-build project, and over two-thirds of people reluctant to buy an off-the-peg volume-built house. However, it is estimated that just 10,000 self and custom-built homes were built in 2015. This panel discussion will debate the reasons why we fail to deliver bespoke homes and what the built environment industry can do to encourage growth in custom-build.

Speakers include:

Alex Ely, director of Mae Architects

Chris Brown, chief executive of Igloo Regeneration

Gus Zogolovitch, CEO and founder of Inhabit Homes

Geoff Shearcroft, director of AOC Architecture

Chair: Alice Grahame, freelance journalist and communications advisor, The Guardian and resident of a Walter Segal house