Start with a place: the plots, people and possibilities where you want to live.
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Imagine an overlooked piece of land at the edge of a village.
An owner who has wondered for years what to do with it. A family nearby who would give anything to build there. Livedin brings the two together, establishing the planning principle and the know-how to make the project happen.
Free assessmentNo email requiredEngland only
Self-builder
Previous projects
Plots our team has helped carry from first sketch to finished home, and the architects who led them.
About Livedin
Livedin exists to radically increase access to self-building: homes that reflect the dreams, values and stories of the people who build them, and plots that leave behind something to be proud of.
Livedin works no win, no fee: we carry the cost and the risk of establishing the planning principle on a site, and the landowner pays nothing unless permission is granted. Once permission is in place, we help the landowner sell the plots and self-builders find them.
How it works for landowners →In the press
“This place is flippin’ brilliant.”
Kevin McCloud, Grand Designs
“How to build your own home, the easy way.”
The Times
“How an architect is rethinking custom-build.”
Architects’ Journal
“This model has got to be the way forward for our housing market.”
Richard Bacon MP
“This route to home ownership offers choice and flexibility.”
Self Build Portal
News
- 19 Aug 2026
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- 30 Jul 2026
- 14 Jul 2026
- 25 Jun 2026
- 9 Jun 2026
- 21 May 2026
- 30 Apr 2026
Design patterns
See all →Ideas for homes and the spaces between them. Explore the interactive studies.
Window seat
A deep reveal with room to read, rest and look out.
Sheltered balcony
A timber gallery between home and courtyard.
Timber corner window
Wraparound glazing and a continuous timber sill.
Street sections
Balance homes, gardens, paths and passing traffic.
Stilt houses
A raised timber dwelling at the edge of the water.
Riad courtyard
Rooms and shaded galleries around water and planting.
Japanese engawa
A timber veranda connecting room and garden.
Grasse streets
Shuttered facades, stepped passages and café squares.
New London
Brick housing shaped by bays, balconies and deep openings.
Grasse settlement
A compact town of sloping streets and shared squares.
Townhouse facade
Georgian sash-window rhythm or Victorian bays and gables.
Dutch townhouse
Sculpted gables, tall windows and an optional row of canal-side neighbours.
Frome high street
A cobbled shopping hill with painted shopfronts and stone façades.
Floating Dutch houses
Timber homes on pontoons, roof terraces and a shared jetty over water.
A Cotswold terrace
Bibury-inspired stone cottages, irregular gables, cottage gardens and a mill stream.
Machiya shopping street
Kyoto shopfronts, timber lattices and tiled eaves stepping up a stone lane.
Machiya deep plan
A narrow Kyoto townhouse with a deep sequence of rooms, passage and courtyard gardens.
French hill town
A Saint-Pons-de-Mauchiens circulade: stone houses, concentric lanes, a summit church and vineyards.
London mews
Carriage-house doors, sash windows and climbing gardens along a shared cobbled lane.
Andalusian patio house
Whitewashed arcades, terracotta roofs and a flowering patio with a central fountain.
Cotswold burgage town
A Cotswold stone town today. Explore deep burgage plots, rear courts and gardens across different times and places.
Desert wind catcher house
An earthen desert house with a badgir wind tower, shaded courtyard and a cutaway airflow study.
Vrångö island
Vrångö (Vrango), Sweden: winding car-free lanes, electric cargo bikes, clustered timber houses and a rocky old harbour.
Woodland treehouse
A timber cabin among the trees, with a sheltered deck, braced stilts and a bridge through the canopy.
Asturian mountain village
Asturias, Spain: a large central barn, terracotta roofs, winding lanes and clustered stone houses surrounded by green mountain pasture.
Icelandic turf houses
Iceland: connected grass roofs, dark timber gables and thick stone and earth walls nestled beneath a green hillside.
Fragment #1
A narrow timber tower with a corrugated metal roof, raised slatted gallery and stone base.
Oval piazza
A ring of shuttered houses, terracotta roofs and narrow passages around a shared oval square.
San Gimignano piazza
Tuscany, Italy: an enclosed stone piazza, stepped communal well, terracotta roofs and medieval towers above cafe-lined edges.
Building around trees
Compare bored piles, screw piles and pads beneath a house around a tree. Explore floor height, ground beams, pile heads, bracing and root zones.
Scroll to explore
Where to start
- For landownersFree land assessmentFind out whether your land could win permission for self-build plots.
- For self-buildersPlots at planningSelf-build plots with permission granted or in progress. Register to hear about new ones first.
- For self-buildersFind a self-build architectArchitects who design one-off homes and know the planning process.
- Planning guidanceSelf-build rights and registersHow council self-build registers work, and the duty councils have to meet the demand on them.
- Planning guidanceSelf-build appeals mapSuccessful self-build planning appeals across England, on one map.