Prefabs Breaking The Stigma

The post-war rush to house large numbers of people as quickly as possible gave prefab or prefabricated or offsite homes a bad name leaving this stigma of cheap, ugly, poor quality, temporary accommodation. Approximately 156,000 prefab homes were erected after World War II. Sixty years on and the UK now has another housing shortage. Can we break the stigma and use offsite construction to resolve today’s housing crisis? Well we believe so and here’s why.

Offsite construction allows for shorter construction times compared with traditional methods:

• It enables works and foundations to be prepared simultaneously with offsite manufacturing and fit out of building sections.
• Because main construction takes place in a factory it eliminates weather disruption and lowers risk of delays.
• Construction processes are standardized and simplified due to repetition of the design modules.
• Sophisticated mechanical and electrical fit-out is easier to achieve through the use of, for example, pre-manufactured wiring looms.
• Greater quality control reduces time spent on defect corrections and call backs.

Offsite construction is more sustainable than traditional methods:

• Less material waste.
• Flexibility, buildings can be disassembled and the “modules” can be relocated or refurbished for another use.
• Adaptability, buildings can be extended quickly and simply with minimal disruption.
• Less material exposure to inclement weather.
• Less site disturbance, because of offsite construction.
• Manufacture takes place in a safe, controlled factory environment.

Some of you might be sat there thinking hang on this is not very revolutionary – the ideas of offsite construction have been around for decades. And yes your right they have take the post war prefabs as an example, but what modern day offsite construction has the ability to do is not only offer all the advantages of speed and sustainability but also offer design innovation in volume – something the existing UK prefab manufacturers are not used to.

Modern day offsite construction is revolutionary because in order to achieve design innovation in volume sophisticated manufacturing techniques are required, Philip Cuthbert Sales Representative at Prekons Construction Industry spoke out saying “There is a stigma in the UK around the use of prefabricated buildings for housing. The paradox is that people are more than happy to have critical healthcare in prefabricated buildings, but don’t want to live in one. If you see our latest developments I’d challenge  you to tell the difference between them and traditional builds”.

What we need is for the existing UK prefabricated building manufacturers to raise the stakes otherwise I think we are going to see some new names in the world of prefabrication.

Written By: zkenney

Source: http://www.prekons.co.uk/prefabs-breaking-the-stigma/