The House Is The System

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RIBA West Midlands Housing Competition 2026

Location: St Saviour’s Mews, Saltley, Birmingham
Status: Competition Submission

There is a tendency to think of housing as a collection of individual homes. Plans are drawn, façades composed and buildings arranged across a site until the development appears complete. This proposal challenges that approach.

The House Is The System explores a different model for housing delivery, one in which architecture is generated from a consistent set of rules rather than a series of individual design decisions. Developed as our submission to the RIBA West Midlands Housing Competition, the project investigates how a simple, repeatable framework can create housing that is adaptable, efficient and deeply rooted in its context.

At the heart of the proposal is a 600mm structural grid combined with a centralised service spine. Together these establish a coordinated framework for structure, servicing and spatial organisation. Rather than prescribing fixed layouts, the system distinguishes between elements that should remain permanent and those that can evolve over time.

Structure, envelope and services remain fixed.

Living space remains free.

This simple separation allows homes to respond to changing patterns of occupation without requiring structural alteration. Internal layouts can be reconfigured as households grow, contract or change, extending the useful life of the building and reducing the need for costly adaptation or demolition.

The ambition extends beyond the individual dwelling.

Applied across the site, the same system generates a coherent urban structure. Housing forms a clear perimeter around a shared internal courtyard, creating a protected communal landscape while establishing a strong relationship with the existing Grade II listed church. Rather than treating the church as a constraint, the proposal recognises it as a civic anchor, reinforcing its role within the community through carefully considered thresholds, shared spaces and opportunities for interaction between residents and the wider neighbourhood.

This approach reflects the existing social character of Saltley while proposing a framework capable of supporting future generations.

The project also considers the environmental implications of housing delivery. A regular structural grid supports efficient construction, reduces material waste and lends itself to off-site manufacture. The centralised service strategy simplifies building services and enables future adaptation without major intervention, contributing to reduced whole-life carbon and a more circular approach to construction.

While developed for a specific site, the proposal is intended as something more than a single architectural response.

It represents an ongoing area of research within 04/05 Architecture.

Increasingly, we believe that the future of housing lies not in continually redesigning individual house types, but in developing robust systems capable of accommodating change. Good housing should be durable enough to endure, adaptable enough to evolve, and structured enough to be delivered efficiently at scale.

Architecture should not simply produce buildings.

It should establish frameworks through which better places can continually be made.

Project Themes

• System-led housing design
• 600mm structural grid
• Adaptable living
• Lifetime homes
• Medium-density housing
• Community-centred placemaking
• Low whole-life carbon
• Modern Methods of Construction
• Social housing
• Urban regeneration

The House Is The System forms part of our ongoing research into adaptable housing systems and the future of residential architecture.