Every day the 25,000m2 facility produces eight new modular homes which can be installed on site at a rate of six homes per day. The units have flexible layouts and there are more than 100 design variations, including two-storey terraced houses, semi-detached properties and four-storey apartment blocks. Each unit can be tailored to the private, social housing and rental markets.
The company’s whole-house volumetric system is the first to achieve National Housing-Building Council (NHBC) recognition and will be covered by NHBC’s Buildmark warranty.
Ilke Homes says the new factory in Knaresborough has created more than 250 jobs across its manufacturing and supply chains. The company says that there are currently 600 homes in the pipeline for the coming year, across more than 30 sites.
Björn Conway, CEO of Ilke Homes says: “We’re working in partnership with housing associations, local authorities and developers to ensure there is a steady supply of affordable housing for those who need it most.”
BSRIA offers offsite options
Installing mechanical and electrical systems on a live construction site can be challenging, with limited space, tight schedules and complex health and safety considerations to take into account.
With this in mind, BSRIA has launched a new guide: Offsite Construction for Building Services. The free-to-download publication offers M&E engineers an insight into options for prefabrication and offsite manufacture.
Users are invited to consider the different scales of offsite construction, from widespread services distribution, to local applications such as packaged plant rooms, and to consider which approach would work best, and whether prefabrication is right for the project in hand.
Project Etopia racing to new modular standard
Demonstration project will be the first to undergo BRE tests.
Project Etopia is building a new demonstration home at BRE’s Watford Innovation Park with the aim of becoming the first company to win BRE’s new BPS7014 standard for modular systems for dwellings.
The 108m2 three-bedroom detached house will be tested against fire, flooding and hurricanes and will also showcase how modular housing can embrace eco-technology, featuring solar cladding, triple glazing and a Daikin Altherma heating and cooling system.
Project Etopia says the house will be 20% cheaper to build than a conventionally-built home, costing around £1,200 per square metre, compared to £1,500 for a traditional structure.
The company expects the exterior wall superstructure to be completed within 20 hours, including four hours for the scaffolding. The Etiopia build system is not dependent on weather conditions.
BRE is launching its new BPS7014 industry certification scheme to the wider industry this summer. David Kelly, Innovation Park director at BRE, says that the standard “will assure all parties — occupiers, insurers, lenders, asset owners and developers alike — of the quality, durability and integrity of modular construction, by demonstrating that they have been subjected to a rigorous independent review, testing and certification process.
This article was first published in the April 2019 issue of The Construction Index magazine
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