The targets for creating new homes in the UK are well known. We also know that 300,000 new homes a year is something the UK hasn’t achieved since the 1960s. And in those days, we didn’t have an ageing workforce or the threat of a drain on skilled labour that could flow from Brexit.
How likely does it look that targets will be met? Not very. According to RICS, 88% of whose members didn’t believe the target was realistic in a recent survey. But are they being unduly pessimistic?
If we are talking about building homes the way we’ve always done it’s hard to see how we can sustain anything close to 300,000 home completions a year. But, as ever, an apparently unsolvable problem just needs a different approach.
Learning from Industry
In the industrial world, having to dramatically scale up production rapidly isn’t a mystery. Processes are improved, and new factory capacity gets built. Where specialist skills are needed they are generally not the kind that take years to master.
In other words, we need to think like manufacturers not contractors, and build in different ways.
Panelised offsite construction is essentially an industrial manufacturing process. It is highly scalable and is also possible to maintain high quality standards as output expands, which is rarely the case with traditional construction.
The Structural Insulated Panel (SIP) method combines strength, dimensional stability and excellent thermal insulation in a single large format panel. So, once fitted together on site, there are far fewer follow on operations that could introduce delays. The operations that are needed can be scheduled with confidence.
Standardisation with Flexibility
Standardisation of design allows both costs and timelines to be reduced even further. Suddenly, 300,000 homes a year becomes a much more attainable target with a manufacturing approach.
Many architects and designers are still unfamiliar with the technology. Some are possibly even confused about the different types of offsite solutions available, which is maybe why they are not seeing a solution to the house building challenge.
Yet, on project after project where architects work with Innovaré for the first time, they quickly become evangelists for the technology, grasping the design flexibility and quality assurance guarantees that SIPs bring.
Additionally, speed and cost guarantees don’t come at the expense of design freedom and individuality. Using advanced 3D modelling it’s easier to create imaginative designs and be certain that they can be built. And the wide range of cladding options mean that few people would realise that the house or apartment block they were looking at had been constructed in anything other than a ‘normal’ way.
Panelised offsite isn’t an instant answer. Our industry doesn’t yet have the capacity to meet a substantial part of the demand for new homes. But, unlike the traditional industry, given the opportunity we can see exactly how that capacity will be brought on stream. If you’d like to find out more, click here or take a look at our case studies.
