The tiny 25-57 m2 flats would be built with a far greater level of off-site manufacture than anything seen before. Joinery and plumbing would be installed in the factory, meaning they could be assembled on site swiftly with a smaller team.
The modular units would be lighter, and could be dismantled and reassembled elsewhere without heavy lifting equipment. This would mean hospitals could build nurses' homes on top of existing multi-storey car parks, for example. Or a vacant site that could not be completely redeveloped until a neighbouring lot was bought could have the units assembled on it, ready to be moved when the permanent development began.
Peabody developed the technology with manufacturers Spaceover, architect Proctor and Matthews and interior designer Johnson Naylor, which worked on the One SE8 development in south-east London.
Subject to planning permission, six of the flats are to be built in Waterloo, central London, by March. Typically, though, they would be built on land leased from an employer to house its staff: Peabody is planning on a 40-home project for the NHS, subject to land agreements. The land will be leased to Peabody at a peppercorn rent.
David Gregory, Peabody's programme manager for the Keep London Working research project, said the NHS scheme would be significantly cheaper than traditional methods of construction: "The prototype scheme is carrying the cost of the development, so in itself is quite expensive. But we are doing one project with the NHS where the target costs are between half and three-fifths of the costs of typical construction.
"We need 7000 homes a year for key workers. The Housing Corporation-sponsored programme for them is less than 6000. We need to double that.
"We could start making up London's housing shortfall with minimum use of subsidy."
Source
Housing Today
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