This project is shortlisted in the Social Stewardship category of the inaugural Open City Stewardship Awards. Find out more: open-city.org.uk/stewardship-awards

Please note that there is no parking available on Church Grove. Visitors with specific access requirements should email info@theruss.org before Saturday 11 September.

The Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS) is a members-led Community Land Trust, founded in 2009 with the aim of creating sustainable community-led neighbourhoods and truly affordable homes across London. Our mission is to reduce our communities’ dependence on fossil fuels, increase food security, encourage biodiversity and provide affordable housing for Londoners. We aim to establish a replicable model in community-led housing that will benefit people currently unable to access housing on the open market. Anyone who supports these aims can become a member; RUSS currently has over 1,000 members. Our first project is in Ladywell, south-east London, where we are building 36 flats on a site at the end of Church Grove, next to the Ravensbourne river. The site was previously occupied by a foundry, and later by a school which relocated in 2003. The school buildings were subsequently demolished and the site has been empty since then. After a campaign led by RUSS members, we successfully completed a public procurement process and signed a Development Agreement with Lewisham Council for a ‘community-led, affordable, self-build housing development’.

Residents were involved in a series of co-design sessions in 2016 and 2017 with architects Architype and self-build facilitator, Jon Broome. In 2018, RUSS was granted planning permission for 33 homes. Residents were again involved in design discussions looking at materials and internal layouts with architects SEH in 2020. An application to make Minor Material Amendments, including increasing the number of flats to 36, was approved in February 2021.

Homes at Church Grove range from one to four bedrooms, and are available with different types of tenure: social rented, affordable rented, fixed equity and shared ownership. Residents must demonstrate a strong local connection, and be able to afford a RUSS home but not a property on the open market. The initial allocations were drawn by ballot from a waiting list of RUSS members. The aim is to create a truly mixed community made up of people from diverse backgrounds in the local area.

Future residents can opt to take possession of their homes at the ‘shell and core’ stage, completing all the interior work themselves, or join ‘sweat equity teams’ to work together on self-build for a number of flats. These self-build options are designed to reduce costs to residents as well as providing opportunities for training in construction for residents and for apprentices and volunteers from the wider community. The leases will ensure that the homes remain affordable in perpetuity.

The Community Hub on the Church Grove site is an example of RUSS’s flexibility and capacity to draw on support from members and the locality. Members came up with a ‘meantime’ plan to activate the Church Grove site with a freestanding Community Hub, built by over 90 volunteers in 2019, funded by crowdfunding and small grants, and using reclaimed materials. It is available for local groups to hire for community events and has provided valuable lessons to feed into the design of volunteering and training opportunities on the new flats.