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INSIGHTS SITE LINES
Predictions of success
James Parker uncovers how the predictable quality offered by off-site construction using timber is being seen as a key part of solving the housing crisis
It’s widely held that traditional methods are alone unlikely to deliver on the 200,000 homes a year the Government has promised. Housing Minister Gavin Barwell put his weight behind the benefits of using off-site ‘modern methods of construction’ in September last year, when he visited a development of concise homes by Pocket in Lambeth, saying it was a “great example” and he “hoped that more developers would follow their lead.” The world of CLT (cross laminated timber) however has been making inroads into new approaches to housing for some time, with its unprecedented ability to create multi-storey buildings chiefly of timber thanks to the material’s dimensional stability and lack of shrinkage or movement post-construction. Finished in November 2010, Bridport House in Hackney is a social housing scheme that was a major coup for the advancement of CLT, as the UK’s tallest timber building at eight storeys. Designed by Karakusevic Carson Architects, it was built in 12 weeks by Wilmott Dixon using a timber system from Scandinavian firm Stora Enso. And as architect Rory Bergin of HTA recently reported in ADF following a visit to Legal & General’s new £50m factory in Yorkshire, that company is an example of a major player in the housing market investing heavily in CLT as an alternative solution to delivering the huge numbers of homes that are needed. However, it’s not just about the speed of assembly which is possible – further helped by factories’ ability to assemble panels for houses in all weather conditions, 24 hours a day. Off-site modular construction can, many believe, also deliver higher levels of consis- tent quality than is commonly seen across the volume housebuilding sector. With increased density requirements meaning that multi-storey is the only sensible answer in urban areas, CLT is now being seen as a realistic solution. Not least because of the thermal and acoustic insu- lation benefits it can bring, in addition to its low carbon credentials, factory-made precision, and design flexibility. Innovators in CLT include Carbon Dynamic, whose breathable system of rigid wood fibre boards and continuous CLT panels is produced to exacting standards in the company’s factory in Scotland.
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odular construction is the hot topic currently, against the backdrop of the need to increase levels of building to tackle the housing crisis.
Puukuokka, an eight-storey modular CLT apartment building in Finland by architects OOPEAA, has been shortlisted for the Mies Van der Rohe Award
The firm claims to offer a very straightforward, collaborative approach to clients, and provided vapour barrier benefits as well as avoidance of thermal bridging at Scotland’s first modular affordable housing scheme, Kendall Court in Alness. At the end of 2016 CLT producer Stora Enso launched its Modular Building System at an event in London, as a free resource following on from its earlier residential-specific Multi-Storey system launched in April. This was a clear sign the company believes that there is sufficient interest in CLT to justify investment in a full-blown system – and accompanying manual – including structural calcula- tions, design and installation considerations, and country-specific regulations compliance. The firm’s business development manager Gareth Mason spoke at the event, placing the potential offered by CLT as well as thinner- layered LVL (laminated veneer lumber) in the context of last year’s Farmer Report which challenged the construction industry to “modernise or die.”
He pointed out that Mark Farmer’s report, for the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) recommended that the Government “should act to provide stimulus to innovation in the housing sector by promoting the use of pre-manufactured (offsite, modular and volumetric) solutions through policy measures.” Mason also held that CLT was the “quietest form of construction” making it particularly useful on sensitive sites, but showed that overseas projects are leading the way. In Vancouver a 53 metre, 18-storey CLT block for the University of Columbia has completed four months ahead of schedule, and Lend Lease’s International House in Sydney is Australia’s first engineered
ADF FEBRUARY 2017
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