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zodiac house reborn as emergency housing

73 thoughtfully designed and environmentally responsible homes at Zodiac House in West Croydon will be used for temporary housing.

In response to growing housing challenges and to address homelessness, Croydon Council has acquired Zodiac House. Like many councils across the UK, Croydon faces increasing demand for temporary housing due to a shortage of affordable homes and high private rental costs. The purchase of Zodiac House aligns with its strategy to reduce reliance on expensive private accommodation, ensuring a more sustainable and financially viable solution.

The building has a mix of one, two, and three-bedroom flats, all to be managed by the council. A 24-hour concierge service will support tenants, ensuring their safety and well-being. The acquisition of Zodiac House is expected to generate cost savings for the council of nearly £1million annually against the equivalent spend of housing people in the private market.

Zodiac exemplifies the potential of converting commercial properties into quality homes. Originally designed as a landmark development in the 1960s, the building had remained vacant for three decades. Its transformation highlights how such conversions can help address the urgent need for temporary housing with low environmental impact.

The transformation by shedkm focused on sustainable redevelopment, creating community spaces, and breathing new life into the existing but underutilised structure. By preserving the existing building, this redevelopment avoids the significant environmental impact of demolition and new construction, saving the equivalent carbon of planting 120,000 trees. Beyond providing much-needed housing, Zodiac  is designed to sit within the existing community, rather than on the edge where so many homeless families are placed. The development will create the new Broad Green Common, a multifunctional green space co-designed with local residents with a new community pavilion. These elements help stitch back together a disused stretch of the high street, enhancing social and environmental well-being.

Steve Sanham, Founder of Common Projects, said: “We have already ‘used up’ the carbon locked up in the many vacant and unsuitable commercial buildings that have no future as offices. Demolishing them wastes this carbon and then new-build development contributes more. At the same time, we have millions of people in need of good-quality homes – a lot of them desperately so. These do not need to be ‘parallel’ issues. With the right amount of care, and attention to detail, these carbon-heavy buildings can have a new life as carbon-efficient homes. We were very pleased to have worked with Croydon Council to close this innovative transaction, and to see that Zodiac’s homes will be used for people in urgent need of safe, secure and high-quality homes.”

Ella Flint, Architectural Lead, at shedkm, said: “shedkm adopts a people-first approach to all designs, creating vibrant neighbourhoods with long-term social sustainability and bringing buildings and spaces back into meaningful use. We’re proud to work alongside Common to create these vital spaces for people in Croydon.”

The development has been supported by Mitheridge Capital Management and Homes England’s Levelling Up Home Building Fund. The Council’s financial model combines funding from Right to Buy reciepts, Homelessness Grants, and borrowing, demonstrating a multifaceted approach to housing investment.