A competition for six affordable homes in York will provide inspiration for new model village near York.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is sponsoring a competition to design inspiring, affordable suburban housing in a move it hopes will provide inspiration for a new development near York.

The competition is open to teams of architects, developers and surveyors. The Foundation hopes to build the winning entry for a development of about six homes in its model village of New Earswick in York, and is also looking for exciting and practical ideas for a 540-home development planned on the east side of the city.

JRF Director Lord Richard Best said that the challenge for the competing applicants would be to apply good design to relatively inexpensive, affordable homes.

He said: "Although British architects win international awards for major commercial and cultural buildings, residential architecture for the middle and lower housing market has been largely ignored. We hope our competition can make a useful contribution to good suburban design at the start of a new century."

The competition aims to achieve a mix of houses and flats for sale and rent. Guidelines stipulate that the tenure of each home should not be apparent and the quality should not vary according to tenure. The Foundation hopes that the design and build format will guard against pioneering but unworkable designs.

Teams are being invited to express their interest by the end of March. A selection of four finalists will be made in York on April 15th by an expert panel of judges, advised by Les Sparks, a Commissioner at CABE.

The picture is mixed. Everybody uses PDAs on the architecturally astonishing underground system, so there isn’t a fear of crime.

People like. If you flash extreme wealth than that’s when you are more on your guard.