2001 Innovation awards

Already a winner in the Building Homes Quality Awards, Westbury takes the top prize here for its carefully researched and trialled Space4 timber frame system. It was Westbury's "clinical, precise approach" to transforming housebuilding into a manufacturing process that ultimately won over the judges in the Innovation Awards. The system comprises floor cassettes and wall panels, the latter made of 13 mm plasterboard and 10 mm cement particle board with an 89 mm phenolic insulation filling. Panels include service conduits for plumbing and electrics and are fitted with doors and windows in the factory. The panels for a house can be delivered to site on two lorries. A 1200 sq ft house can be erected in a day. Bricklaying is taken off the critical path, so internal fit-out is carried out in parallel, reducing overall build time from 16 weeks plus to six to eight weeks. Space4 owes its origins to a research project initiated by Westbury six years ago to investigate how best business practice could be transferred from industrial manufacturing to construction. Earlier this year the company opened its Space4 factory at Castle Bromwich, in the West Midlands, and its 200th house has just rolled off the production line. The factory has been designed to produce 5000 homes a year. Having created its first generation system, Westbury is now looking at future scope to integrate: panellised roofs, wiring looms, cladding systems, rapid fit of sanitaryware and kitchens, finishing operations, and extensions and refurbishments.

Persimmon and Bovis have already trialled Celcon’s Jamera system and Laing Partnerships is soon to put the system to the test on a London scheme. That’s an indication of housebuilder interest in H+H Celcon’s Jamera system, which combines traditional and innovative build technology. The system, which is Finnish in origin, uses Aircrete blocks laid in thin-joint mortar, together with steel reinforced Aircrete elements for floors, lintels and roof. Floor elements are typically 200 or 240 mm deep and 600 mm wide and can span up to 6 m. Our judges liked the way it evolved traditional practice, but wondered whether it might be labour and skills intensive. Persimmon has already used Jamera on a trial house in Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes. “The floor plans arrived on site at 8.30 one morning and by 11.30 we had them all in place. Beam and block would have taken all day and still needed grouting,” said Jim Annetts, Persimmon’s site manager. Floor elements do currently carry a slight cost premium to beam and block because they are being imported to the UK. But Celcon is investing £25m in a production plant in Yorkshire to supply the UK market.

While Space4 and Jamera are whole-house systems, Vencel Resil has come up with a component for tiled or slated pitched roofs that can increase the efficiency of the housebuilding process and add value to the end product. The company launched Jablite Roof Element to the UK housebuilding market last year and has been partnering with Countryside Properties. The Roof Element spans from eaves to ridge with a minimum number of purlin supports, to provide readily usable roofspace. The Dutch manufactured panel has an inner and outer layer of 8 mm thick moisture-resistant chipboard bonded to an insulating core of expanded polystyrene to provide a warm roof construction. It offers a U value of between 0.37W/m2K and 0.20W/m2K. Where dormer or rooflight windows are to be included in the roof, the panels can be cut at the core. Panels are easy to handle, require minimum skill to install and provide weatherproof cover in a single application. The judging panel liked the product for its ease of application and thought it could have scope for inclusion in a whole house system.

Thermalite has taken its existing Trenchblock foundation block and ingeniously improved on it to make it both easier to use and, crucially, safer for site operatives to handle. The focus on safety on site was commended by the judges. The blocks now have tongue and groove joints at either end, so they can be simply slotted together and perp-ends no longer have to be mortared. Above the tongue and groove joints, the manufacturer has incorporated hand holds, so the blocks are easier to lift. The blocks, which are made from up to 85% recycled materials, have a class A Eco-Homes rating from the Building Research Establishment. Having proven the tongue and groove concept for foundations, Thermalite is now looking to extend the principle above ground to solid wall construction.

Timber systems are generating much interest in the housebuilding industry, as confirmed by their popularity in the Innovation Awards shortlist. Kingspan was shortlisted for its German-manufactured Tek Haus whole house system, which can be used to form walls, floors and roof. Tek Haus is a structural insulated panel system, with panels made from two Oriented Strand Boards with a rigid urethane insulation core. Air tightness levels of 0.08 air changes per hour can be achieved as the panels are sealed with expanded foam. U values of down to 0.18W/m2K can be also be attained. The system is already making headway in the social housing sector, with two projects in the pipeline. Kingspan is also building a pair of Tek Haus semis at the show village at the housebuilding industry’s new Zethus research centre, at the University of Greenwich campus in Dartford, Kent. But Westbury won as the judges felt that Tek Haus had not been as fully developed as Westbury’s Space4 system, highlighting the fact that services had either to be surface mounted or hidden behind plasterboarding.

Revolutionary Pod Modules is a newcomer to the pod market, having opened its factory earlier this year, but it is aiming to have a big impact on the marketplace. It has set itself the target of producing some 500 pods in its first year and already has an order to deliver 250 kitchen and bathroom pods for developer Gregor Shore’s apartment scheme in Edinburgh. The company’s pods have Corus steel frames and are fully demountable for refurbishment. The company offers a two-stage factory fit-out process of its pods, to allow homebuyers’ kitchen and bathroom choices to be incorporated at a late stage. All pods come with a three-year parts and labour warranty, and the company provides a 24-hour call-out service for repairs. Our judges agreed that pods offered an attractive end product in terms of quality of the finishes, but raised the issue of the need for early design integration.