Setting out to build or renovate an affordable home is a challenge that can result in immense benefits. Self-builders can make savings by project managing or undertaking the work themselves. Renovators and those extending their homes often find worthwhile compromises when selecting materials, fixtures and fittings, a process made easier by the input of a skilled architect who’s committed to reducing costs. Employing innovative building techniques and the imaginative upcycling of existing structures can create the foundations for a project that ends up being rewarding in more ways than one.
1 ADAPT AND REUSE An unfinished newbuild in the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, East Sussex, has been completed and remodelled into a four-bedroom home, which includes an annexe reconfigured from the garage with a kitchen, games area, bedroom and shower room. The total build cost was £425,000 for the 202sqm project, or £2,103 per sqm.