Modulhaus - First for London
Project Details
Project - Haringey Council
Sector - Residential
Technology - Volumetric Modular
Company - Hill Group & Volumetric Modular Ltd
Deputy Mayor of London Tom Copley joined Councillor Peray Ahmet, the Leader of Haringey Council and Greg Hill, Deputy Chief Executive from Hill Group for the official handover of 33 new MODULHAUS™ homes – designed and developed by VOLUMETRIC™.
TACKLING HOMELESSNESS
Haringey has become the first council in London to provide the custom
designed MODULHAUS™ solution to tackle homelessness and help those in
need of safe and secure accommodation. The modular homes for rough
sleepers have been installed on disused council-owned land in Tottenham
through a partnership between Haringey Council and Hill Group.
Manufactured in just nine weeks, delivered 100% complete and taking five days to install, half of the homes have been donated by Hill Group with further major funding provided by the GLA and central government. It is the first project in London to benefit from Foundation200 a £15million charitable initiative by Hill to donate 200 modular homes to organisations supporting people experiencing homelessness.
Haringey Council expects residents to stay in the modular homes for around two years. They will provide a more stable base than the streets, hostels or shelters, allowing rough sleepers to eventually move onto permanent accommodation.
FUTURE HOMES STANDARDS
VOLUMETRIC™ has worked in close
collaboration with Foundation200 to develop MODULHAUS™ to meet
individual site briefs and budgets of Councils, Local Authorities and
Third Sector Organisations.
Designed to the Future Homes Standard and exceeding Building Regulations – the homes have energy costs of around £5 per week. Delivered fully furnished and equipped for a single person to move straight into, MODULHAUS™ homes are LABC Assured with a BOPAS Accredited design life of 60years.
As there may be a requirement to stack the modules the structure is formed from hot rolled steel point loaded corner post frames. Walls are lined with a fire rated A1 non-combustible board to provide fire and acoustic performance. As this is the first development to be carried out over two storeys there were some challenges. Bespoke connections were developed to align the external stairs and walkways and the client also repurposed a unit as a community office.
COST-EFFECTIVE SOLUTION
Created to meet the needs of
those battling to find a cost-effective solution to address rough
sleeping, modules include low energy lighting, white goods, controlled
flow showers and dual flush cisterns to minimise energy and water
consumption. Renewable energy technology is built
into every home and the well-insulated structure delivers U-values as
low as 0.09W/m²K. Six plant rooms manufactured by VOLUMETRIC™ provide
MEP services for the development. However, instead of the modules having
the standard card meters for electric, the client proposed an
alternative method of centrally charging occupiers for energy.
POSITIVE OUTCOMES
A team of Haringey Council staff will provide specialist
support to enable residents to adjust and settle into their new homes,
as well as to tackle the issues that led them to becoming homeless.
"This raises the bar for London's homelessness response," said Gill Taylor, the Council's Head of Service and Strategic Lead for Homelessness. "Rough sleepers deserve quality housing like this, and we're currently exploring other sites in the borough to build more."
CLIENT FEEDBACK
Councillor Peray Ahmet, Leader of Haringey Council, said:
"I'm proud to be part of this joint initiative to help people move on
securely from a life of sleeping rough.
We know we can't tackle this problem alone, which is why I'm so
delighted our collaboration with Hill is helping us deliver good
quality, transitional housing that ensures people in need can get their
lives back on track."
For more information, visit www.volumetric.co.uk
