Garden pods could help ease housing crisis
With planning regulations being relaxed and a generation of young people unable to find a home of their own, an enterprising Cornish inventor thinks he might have hit on a solution.
Max Marshall, from Bude, has designed and built a tough, versatile pod which he hopes will soon be popping up in back gardens everywhere. The 22-year-old believes his Eco Hubb buildings, made from sustainable materials and erected without the need for foundations, offer an alternative to the caravan at the bottom of the garden.
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Max Marshall (back right) with James Bright, Stuart Marshall and Vernon Bright at their prototype Eco Hubb
The former Budehaven School student, who has been joined in the enterprise by his father, Stuart, and builders Vernon and James Bright, recently completed a prototype.
"I hope the Eco Hubb is an inspiring example of the type of compact, affordable buildings we will be seeing a lot more of in the future," he said. "We envisage them being used as semi-permanent accommodation for young adults who cannot afford to buy or rent their own homes. And by siting them in family gardens they could offer a relatively cheap and effective solution to this growing problem."
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Max came up with the idea while working as a chef in a French ski resort. Originally he imagined it would offer alternative accommodation for winter sports fans – but back home in Cornwall family and friends encouraged him to develop its use. So with funding from Bude-based Blanchminster Trust and the Prince's Trust, he gathered a team to take the project forward.
"Because of its shape and pre-fabricated modular design, it can be sited almost anywhere and is suitable as a garden room, office, gym, spare bedroom or self-contained accommodation."
Max, who has generated interest from campsites, is planning to exhibit his £14,995 Eco Hubb at national design shows next year.
"I'm incredibly proud of the design – and I'm grateful to the Blanchminster Trust and Prince's Trust and everyone who has contributed to creating this building of the future," he said. "Thanks must also go to Alan Barnes, my old teacher at Budehaven, for planting the seed that you can build anything if you put your mind to it."
Comments
by barrtribe
Sunday, October 07 2012, 5:54PM
“Handouts by there very nature imply that a renumarance is given for doing absolutely nothing. This does not apply here as they have created something.”
by youngcornwall
Sunday, October 07 2012, 4:54PM
“I think this make do policy shove them down the bottom of the garden in a shed is just masking over the real problem, people need real houses a roof over their heads, going back to the prefab era call them what you like, is just not good enough.”
by dee_2
Sunday, October 07 2012, 4:18PM
“I suggest you read the article again "barrtribe". It seems the inventors have already had not one but two handouts.”
by barrtribe
Sunday, October 07 2012, 1:14PM
“Why all the negative comment's. A group of people get together to create something and all you can do it be sarcastic. Weldone all. Give em a break. At least they are trying something instead of sitting at home waiting for someone to give them a handout.”
by youngcornwall
Sunday, October 07 2012, 9:17AM
“All very good when first new, but get a few of these pods grouped together they could soon be the start of Cornwall's first shanty town like other poorer areas in the world we often see.”
by dee_2
Sunday, October 07 2012, 8:03AM
“This decidedly green initiative deserves all the support it can get. I'd love to live in one of these eco-hubbs. As it is, I currently live in a shoe box in middle o' road. A friend of mine, who lives in a corridor, thinks I'm lucky because it's a cardboard box, though it does get damp at times.
With the population growing on a daily basis as more visitors flood in from overseas, I can see this is the way forward for the nation.
Yours In Peace,
Dee”
by Taxman100
Friday, October 05 2012, 3:20PM
“I always new the LibDems and the 'Greenies' would try to lead us back into living in mud huts. This is the first stage in their contrived process!
Perhaps, they could call them the 'Oval Office' and sell them to gullible Americans.”
by D-Head
Wednesday, October 03 2012, 1:27PM
“I can forsee a great future for a Cornwall covered with these pods - or people pods as I call them. A wind turbine next door, a reed-bed sewage system and carbon footprints become a thing of the past! This must be what Cornwall Council's Julian German meant when he said we would be the greenest county in Cornwall.
I can see it now, tens of thousands of young people coming together to create Eco-Cornwall, setting the agenda for the hole of the UK. Hari krishna, hari krishna, hare krishna, hari hari.”
by shagrats
Wednesday, October 03 2012, 12:00PM
“I got an ex caravan parc static, for 500 quid, now what is greener than that, 3 bedrooms, shower, kitchen, that leaves me 13500 to spend on tofu and fairtrade joss sticks.”
by Stork
Wednesday, October 03 2012, 11:34AM
“You could also probably have an up-market garden shed, a prefabricated Porto Kabin type building, an ex-shipping container, or an old residential caravan, all including crane hire for less than £14k.”