The Davidson Prize 2025 Longlist

F.U.N.N.E.L is a finalist for the 2025 Davidson Prize and you can vote in the People's Choice Award!

‍

https://form.jotform.com/250892443342356

‍

F.U.N.N.E.L comes from a deep frustration about how housing development happens in the U.K.

‍

Rather than seeking to densify and improve what already exists, the default solution is to expand into the countryside, build more roads and increase the pressure on the existing physical and social infrastructure. Residents resist development and justifiably fail to see what is in it for them.

While architects and urban designers are comfortable in larger towns and cities, the countryside is the realm of the mass housebuilder.

What if we could explore the economic incentives and try to find solutions to densify and improve the hundreds of thousands of rural housing estates? What if the cycle of today’s new residents becoming tomorrow’s NIMBYs can be broken?

Melksham represents every small town that has grown exponentially since the 1970s and is slated to keep growing at an unsustainable rate.F.U.N.N.E.L has two key components: a loan programme which would allow residents to finance the building of new homes on their land and pre-approved designs that work to optimize the available sites while keeping a consistent language throughout the neighbourhood.

Developed with WSP's Urban Regeneration and Economic Advisory team and with Spacehub, if selected to the next stage we will approach Melksham Town Council to further explore the urban, economic and social multipliers of F.U.N.N.E.L. We would like to better understand how a solution for infill housing could positively affect the high street, how a local disused tyre factory could be converted into a modular housing factory, how a case for improving the public transport infrastructure can be made once an area is densified and what would be the effect of wealth from development being funnelled to the existing communities pockets.

Why Sprawl when you can F.U.N.N.E.L

‍