10 RUTH TALKS
John O’Brien profile
By Ruth Slavid
THE CONVERSION OF A VICTORIAN STABLE BLOCK INTO A SERIES OF
INNOVATIVE HOMES SOUNDS EXACTLY THE SORT OF CUTESY DEVELOPMENT
THAT MAY BE CHALLENGING, ENJOYABLE AND CHARMING, BUT HAS LITTLE
INFLUENCE ON THE ISSUES THAT AFFECT US TODAY. BUT IN THE CASE OF
THE STABLE BLOCK AT THE BRE’S HEADQUARTERS AT GARSTON NEAR
WATFORD, THIS ASSUMPTION COULD NOT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.
It is the spearhead of a programme to find a solution to one of construction’s most intractable problems – if we are going to
have a housing stock that is sustainable and suited to the needs of the later part of the 21st century, it is going to have to
come through improvements to our existing housing stock and not just through new building.
H
ousing refurbishment is very much the
A wide range of buildings form part of the study,
province of ‘white van man’ and no
including this terraced house in east Lancashire
developments, however ingenious, will
succeed unless they can be communicated
and carried out by those independent
traders, many poorly skilled and often with
little access to the latest information. How
gratifying then that one of the key people
involved in the BRE’s project actually has
experience of working as a white van man.
Trained as a building surveyor, John O’Brien
worked for contractor Costain until 1993
when the last recession hit and work ran out.
It was then that he set up as a self-employed
builder. ‘It gave me a hands-on approach,’
he explained, adding ‘We need to come up
with techniques that can be carried right
down to the workplace.’
These are techniques that will be honed, not
only on the BRE’s Victorian building, but also
on a variety of projects around the country,
under the banner of ‘Rethinking Housing
Refurbishment’. Local authorities and
housing associations have put forward
buildings varying in form and dating from
Victorian times up to the 1970s. The idea is
that techniques are tested and monitored –
monitoring of most of the properties will take
place this winter, although the stable block
itself will not be ready until spring 2010. It is
this detailed feedback that distinguishes the
work from other one-off exemplar projects.
‘Landlords want to get it right,’ says O’Brien.
‘They don’t want to go down a route that will
be expensive and ineffective.’ This is why,
although BRE is willing to look at products
that are innovative alongside the tried and
tested, they have to be from manufacturers
geared up to work on an industrial scale.
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