Digital start-up to work with mayor over homes
ABIRMINGHAM digital startup has won the chance to work alongside West Midlands Mayor Andy Street after developing a digital tool aimed at helping to unlock land for better affordable housing.
DemoDev, led by Andy Reeve of Impact Hub Birmingham and Alastair Parvin of WikiHouse Foundation, was one of four winners in the UrbanChallenge awards which were organised by the West Midlands Combined Authority and Public, a firm which invests in digital start-ups creating products for government.
The competition aims to find ways to use technology to make the West Midlands a better place to live.
More than 120 entries were received from start-ups in 40 cities across eight countries and the winners have each received a prize worth £20,000 and a three-month pilot with the combined authority.
The housing challenge asked startups to look at ways technology could be used to speed up the process of building high-quality homes, reduce energy, improve social care and create economic opportunities.
DemoDev began by using open data analysis to explore ideas of land in the region which might be used to develop affordable homes.
They found a large number of sites were too small for conventional developers. The project will explore the idea of matching digital fabrication and a ‘smart’ supply chain to manufacture high-performance, styl- ish homes. These can be rapidly assembled by small local construction companies and even by communities themselves at an affordable price.
DemoDev impressed judges with its plan to identify and unlock underused land where people could build low-energy houses.
Working with the combined authority, the project will aim to begin with a pilot house. If this works, the developers believe the approach could unlock as many as 12,000 lowenergy, affordable homes as well as engaging local businesses and citizens to produce them.
Mr Reeve said: “The Urban Challenge is a fantastic chance to work with the mayor and help create new forms of housing delivery in the region. It is very exciting to think about the ways in which citizen involvement and digital technologies enhanced by the authority can combine and build great homes whilst building a stronger community.”
Mr Street added: “Technology has such an important part to play in transforming the efficiency and quality of public services which is why I was so keen to launch this competition and challenge technology startups to find answers.
“The West Midlands has the biggest digital sector in the country outside London and I am keen we work closely with them. I am really excited about the potential of DemoDev to help us look at this from a different perspective. I look forward to working with Andy and Alistair over the coming months at the combined authority as we begin to put the idea to the test in practical terms.”