German lessons

What do the Germans know about offsite construction that we don’t?

It seems everyone wanted to know. A conference in September in London detailing modern methods of construction in Germany was hugely overbooked – and that was after organisers DTI and CIRIA had filled a second lecture hall, video-linked to the first.

Why the popularity? Perhaps because of the government drive to encourage MMC, and the way that is impacting on social-housing funding. Perhaps the time is right for offsite to be taken seriously. Or perhaps, as one delegate suggested, it was because the event was free.

Whatever the reason, delegates gained an insight into how offsite works in Germany, where 25,000 new houses annually are built this way. The speakers had been on a DTI mission to Germany to uncover their secrets. But don’t worry if you missed the conference, because CM went along. And here’s what we learnt.

THE GOOD STUFF

Offsite doesn’t necessarily mean quicker. And it doesn’t mean safer, if some of the photos were anything to go by. What it does mean, in Germany, is better quality.

All the speakers had been blown away by the high quality of all the houses they had seen, although they hadn’t got to the bottom of how German contractors achieved this. Maybe it’s a question of mentality. Tim Venables, an associate at Imperial College, took a photo of one company’s instruction to workers: ‘In Qualität und Leistung die Nr. 1 zu sein verpflichtet.’ This means ‘You are committed to be number one in quality and achievement’.

2 Beat the regulations

While UK housebuyers want lovely kitchens and bathrooms, people who buy offsite-constructed houses in Germany also want to know about thermal and sound insulation. Offsite manufacturers pioneered higher environmental standards as a selling point, so they provide houses that beat the regulations, and thus drive national regulations up for everybody.

So for example there’s nothing unusual about solar panels on the roof.

3 Variety within limits

Post-war prefab had a pretty bad reputation in Germany too. They were known as ‘cardboard houses’, so you would think that providing a limited choice of houses would be a bit of a turn-off to the punters.

But the great thing is that the houses have been designed so you can get several variations on a theme around a basic structure.

It was interesting to hear that last minute changes of mind by customers sometimes force some trades from the factory back onto site, particularly electricians. Manufacturers were keen to somehow reverse that trend – but hadn’t worked out how yet.

4 Design to produce

Rather than design a house and then say ‘prefabricate that’, German designers and manufacturers are very much integrated, according to Andrew Ogorzalek, director of PCKO Architects, who went on the mission. Manufacturers train architects in how to design to fit the process. Research bodies and universities are also in the loop as well as customer feedback. “It’s very much a co-ordinated process of design, research, manufacturing and marketing.”

5 Small is beautiful

Delegates on the mission were expecting to visit vast high-tech manufacturing facilities, but discovered that many of them are quite small-scale, producing around 250 units a year and providing high levels of customisation.

This is very different to the UK approach, says Venables, where manufacturers are going for large facilities with a high level of turnover and homogeneity.

THE BIG BUTS...

There’s one huge caveat to all this, though. The German housing market is very different from the UK one. 55% of home buyers are self-procurers. That means you buy a plot of land, go and visit a showhouse estate next to the manufacturer’s factory and say “I want that one.” This means there is a much stronger customer focus.

In the UK, house builders are selling the land and its location as much as the house.

7 Not in Basildon, baby

Many of the attractive timber designs made great use of light and space. But what works on a single secluded plot is not necessarily going to work on a housing estate. Glass-walled bathrooms in Basildon? Maybe not.

8 Is choice good for us?

Since it is the social housing sector that is showing the most interest in offsite (largely due to government pressure through funding which encourages the use of modern methods of construction), the ability to choose can be of limited value. Tenants change, so being able to customise homes may be of limited value. Many private house builders are interested but, says Venables, when they are doing so well with traditional methods, taking risks with new ones is not attractive.

THE FUTURE

The answer is it is already happening to some extent. At the moment estimates show 12% of UK houses are built using offsite techniques, although this doesn’t equate to the highly factory-finished products which the Germans count as offsite. The interesting question is whether the German model of small factories producing customised houses could work in the UK. One firm, Elk, which has factories in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic thinks the time is right now (see box). So perhaps it will be the Austrians rather than the Germans who show us the way.