Performance monitoring, mentoring, seminars and focus groups. This is all the stuff of future innovation and these services and more will be on offer in the UK's first independent facility for homebuilding research, the Zethus Centre, which opens for business in November. We set out its agenda.
The carousel is coming to Dartford, but this particular version has nothing to do with the fairground. The carousel was architect Calford Seaden Partnership's inspiration for the design of the Zethus Centre, homebuilding's own dedicated research base.

The centre with its roundabout-shaped exhibition hall, seminar room and backroom offices is a focus for research into innovation, but it also demonstrates innovation in its own design and construction, by using some unfamiliar timber-based technology. It is being developed by housing innovation consultant The Palmer Partnership in joint venture with the University of Greenwich, with grant assistance from the Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions (DETR) and the support of a range of industrial partners.

Japan's customer centres provide the closest model for Zethus, which is intended to be the UK's knowledge centre on housing systems. Its objectives are to:

  • encourage more sustainable homebuilding via the use of off-site construction and reduction in site generated waste
  • encourage adoption of the Egan agenda among housing clients, and
  • work with industry and Government to create consumer-friendly housing products.

The centre, which will be operated by The Palmer Partnership, aims to achieve these objectives by:

  • education and training initiatives. It will run seminars/workshops and CPD courses for key target groups like clients, contractors, local authority planning and building control staff, regulators, funders, insurers, warrantors, etc. To date, over 1550 decision makers from the housing sector have participated in events;
  • providing a network centre for information on prefabricated housing systems and a forum for suppliers to interface with clients. This will be by display of innovations ranging from individual components through to whole house systems in the Global Village and participation in workshops, seminars and focus groups;
  • acting as a research hub to co-ordinate research, development, demonstration and dissemination activities. This is to ensure the UK housing sector is at the forefront of system development while learning from overseas R&D activities;
  • providing opportunities for firms to second staff for short periods to the centre to work alongside research teams to gain in-depth understanding of the systems to take back to their organisations; and
  • establishing a series of innovative alliances between clients, manufacturers and their associated supply chain to develop more choice in prefabricated technologies for the housing market.

Although the centre will not be open until November, some of these initiatives are already under way and have attracted government support. Two schemes are about to be launched:

  • Government assisted training and education on Egan compliance mentoring. This is a DETR supported initiative that will run from October 2000 for 12 months. The first 20 firms applying for the mentoring scheme will have access to introductory workshops with expert speakers, network factory visits and workplace support, all provided by the centre. Clients and contractors interested in applying for the scheme should contact Simon Palmer (Tel: 01622-817107); and
  • Government assisted training programme on the use of prefabrication for the social housing market. This Housing Corporation supported initiative will run until March 2002, with workshops and seminars specifically for housing associations to enable them to make informed choices about the range of prefabricated housing systems available and which will best suit their needs. A range of events are planned each month from November and HA staff can register their interest at info@tpp.org.uk.

From October a series of monitoring and testing services will also be available. These include:

  • Site-right - a design, manufacture and construction checking service;
  • site based performance monitoring services including: air-tightness, acoustic and thermographic services; and
  • benchmarking and performance monitoring.

Tour Canadian, Scandinavian and Dutch homes in the Global Village

The Global Village forms the main display and research facility. Directly adjacent to the centre it will have eight full size showhomes, built using technology from around the world that demonstrates current best practice, or a particular aspect of sustainability, cost reduction or quality enhancement. The houses will serve as:
  • demonstration models - to allow trade visitors to the centre to explore the technology on built examples;
  • research test-rigs - to provide the test vehicles for a wide-ranging housing research improvement programme; and
  • showhomes for consumers to enable focus group studies to provide direct feedback to manufacturers of potential consumer satisfaction, likes and dislikes about products. The first of these units will be for Amphion and is scheduled for completion this year. By next April homes from the UK, Canada, Scandinavia and the Netherlands should be in place.

    • How the centre is constructed

    “While we knew the building had an educational purpose, we also felt the building should be educational in itself” says John Spence the project architect from Calford Seaden Partnership, architect of the Zethus Centre. The centre is therefore constructed predominantly using innovative products and components that have started to influence the housing market. For example, the Roger Bullivant prefabricated foundation system was chosen, which incorporates small section concrete piles, ground-beams and a new prefabricated concrete deck system. The walls are of a reverse wall construction, built from 175 mm timber studs supplied direct from the sawmill in Sweden by Sodra Timber. These are filled with a 100 mm rigid insulation board from Kingspan Insulation. Internally they have a 15 mm OSB board which takes a 15 mm moisture resistant plasterboard supplied by British Gypsum. Externally, a breather membrane is used to retain the insulation board which is then battened out to receive the external cladding. Various timber-based claddings are used on the building, including traditional Swedish vertical boarding and lightweight pre-finished OSB based claddings imported from the US and Canada. “These boards are the standard housing finish in the US and Canada and we wanted to explore their use here,” explains project technology advisor, Geoff Pitts of Timber Research and Development Association (Trada). The intermediate floor is pre-assembled on site using I-beams from Louisiana Pacific Europe. The roof is also timber with rigid insulation externally finished with a mix of timber boarding and copper sheeting.

    Source

    Building Homes