CASE STUDY 23
UK’s housing challenges, statistics have shown that Northern Ireland currently has around 24,000 households in a state of ‘housing stress.’ The two organisations agreed that modern methods of construc- tion can help tackle this crisis – by speeding up the housing associations’s development pipeline. Once the partnership began, the next stage was for the housing association to look at potential sites to trial the approach. The Joymount site was identified as being the one most suited to offsite delivery of the Clanmil HA’s project, because of the similarity between the association’s typical homes and McAvoy’s prototype. In addition, the Group was confident that the apartment blocks that would form part of the Joymount development could be ‘modularised.’
PLANNING
When they were first approached, Millar told Housebuilder & Developer that the local community had been “very receptive” to the project, recognising the need for more affordable housing. He said that there “has been very positive feedback to date, and the community has engaged well,” which he believes is in part due to McAvoy’s commitment to work under the Considerate Constructors scheme, as part of the company’s policy to “promote best practice in its site activities.”
A brownfield site, the location previously accommodated a factory unit and a former supermarket, both of which had been demolished prior to the Group taking possession. Beyond the removal of these buildings, McAvoy was responsible for site preservation and enabling works, which included the remaining clearance of the site before construction could begin. The extensive remediation involved removing contaminated ground, sub-structure investigations, and levelling the site ready for foundations. The site already had planning for a mixed affordable housing scheme to be built using traditional in situ construction. The Group was then able to develop an offsite solution for the whole scheme that fit into the existing planning consent. Millar reports that this was challenging,
as it involved later engagement in the process than was ideal. “Typically, early engagement at the initial design stage is crucial to optimise efficiency for offsite manufacture,” he explained. “Overcoming this challenge on Joymount demonstrates the flexibility of McAvoy and its offsite housing solutions.” Millar reported that the historic nature
of the site raised further challenges: “The Joymount site is subject to a number of planning conditions relating to the history of the site.” It contains some of the remains of the wall to the old orchard
“TYPICALLY, EARLY ENGAGEMENT AT THE INITIAL DESIGN STAGE IS CRUCIAL TO OPTIMISE EFFICIENCY FOR OFFSITE MANUFACTURE”
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