A shortlisted Urban Splash housing proposal exploring colourful character and innovative domestic space
| Project Location | United Kingdom |
| Project Type | Residential housing, housing typology, design-led regeneration, domestic architecture |
| Project Description | A shortlisted commission for Urban Splash exploring a new residential housing typology for the UK, combining colourful character with innovative domestic space. |
| Client | Urban Splash |
| Architect | UFO Architecture |
| UFO Architecture Team | Jonas Lundberg, Eduardo Barata |
| Project Status | Shortlisted commission, unbuilt |
| Project Duration | — |
| Programme | Residential housing, prototype homes, flexible domestic layouts, shared thresholds, street-facing homes and contemporary living spaces |
| Design Focus | Residential housing, colourful character, innovative domestic space, UK housing, Urban Splash, design-led regeneration and housing typology research |
| Housing Strategy | The proposal explores a new housing typology for the UK, combining compact and flexible domestic planning with a stronger sense of individual identity and architectural character. |
| Urban Strategy | The project responds to Urban Splash’s design-led approach to regeneration, using housing as a tool for creating distinctive neighbourhoods rather than generic residential development. |
| Architectural Strategy | Colour, massing, façade expression and spatial variation are used to give the housing a playful and recognisable identity while supporting practical everyday living. |
| Domestic Strategy | The design investigates how new relationships between rooms, thresholds, outdoor space and shared urban edges can create more generous and adaptable forms of domestic life. |
Tutti Frutti Housing is a shortlisted commission for Urban Splash, the pioneering UK developer known for bringing character, design quality and innovation to residential development. Developed by UFO Architecture, the project explores a new housing typology for the UK, combining bold architectural identity with innovative domestic space planning.
The proposal takes its name from its colourful and varied architectural character. Rather than treating housing as a repetitive neutral product, Tutti Frutti Housing explores how colour, variation and individual expression can become part of a coherent residential strategy. The project uses this strong visual identity to create a more recognisable and engaging model for contemporary housing.
Working with Urban Splash’s ethos of design-led regeneration, the project approaches housing as a tool for making distinctive places. The proposal is not simply a collection of residential units, but an attempt to create a lively domestic environment where individual homes, street edges, shared thresholds and public presence work together.
The design investigates new forms of domestic space suited to changing patterns of living. Flexible layouts, compact planning, varied room relationships and a stronger connection between interior life and exterior edges allow the homes to support different household types and ways of occupying space over time.
Colour is used as more than surface decoration. It becomes part of the architectural language of the project, helping to differentiate homes, animate the street and give the development a strong collective identity. This approach reflects UFO Architecture’s interest in housing that is both practical and culturally expressive.
Tutti Frutti Housing also extends UFO Architecture’s research into residential typologies and material expression. The project explores how housing can combine affordability, adaptability, identity and spatial quality without defaulting to generic apartment blocks or standardised suburban models.
The proposal positions residential architecture as a place for experimentation within the everyday city. Through its combination of colour, character, flexible domestic planning and design-led urban thinking, Tutti Frutti Housing suggests a more playful and generous direction for UK housing.
