Balancing the housing ecosystem

For my final research project, I practised speculative co-design alongside social and private renters in Glasgow, Scotland to imagine a more ideal world where safe, secure homes are treated as they are, a human right. My research and outcome focus on balancing the housing ecosystem in Scotland in the face of the United Kingdom housing crisis.

The emotional significance of housing was consistently validated throughout my research. Be it desk research, interviews with tenants, workshops, or passing conversations. It was clear how foundational home is to one’s emotional and physical well-being.

Balancing the housing ecosystem and facilitating a world where safe, secure, and affordable housing is accessible to everyone is imperative to maintaining the emotional strength of Scotland.

The UK housing crisis is an effect of a lack of social housing, high house prices, and, consequently, high demand for private renting. My outcome manifests as a policy design roadmap that aims to shift our political and cultural mindset around housing.

Declare homes a human right
Build & renovate more social housing
Right to Buy Back
De-incentivise & restrict private landlords

The emotional significance of home is threaded throughout this project. To echo a participant in my workshop, “safe and secure housing is freedom”. My research has made me angry, brought me to tears, connected me to my community, and made me proud to be a service designer. I hope my work shows the ways collective knowledge supports good design and the ways systems, whether being built or fixed, need to be handled with care.