ABSTRACT
The UK is alone in Europe with its house-buying obsession. Many people in the UK purchase houses as a commodity/pension/financial asset/income, with ‘home’ being last on the priority list. The UK is alone in Europe with its house-buying obsession. Many people in the UK purchase houses as a commodity/pension/financial asset/income, with ‘home’ being last on the priority list. The Georgian and Victorian terraces of London, Bath, York or Oxford are much loved, but there is a gross lack of new-build terraced housing in the UK. Houses in the UK are bought and sold on the number of bedrooms, rather than floor area. With rising pressure on our green belts, it is vital that we build good-quality housing that makes the most of our precious resources. Vernacular architecture holds the key to many of the qualities so desperately needed in UK housing today.
