A DTI-sponsored expert mission to study the German prefabricated housing industry brought back `transferable lessons' for UK timber frame manufacturers, according to Paul Newman of TRADA Technology.
The mission participants represented a broad range of interests from across the social and private house building sectors and visited manufacturers across masonry, concrete, aircrete and timber frame sectors.
The German housebuilding sector contrasts starkly with that in the UK, said Dr Newman. There is relatively little speculative housebuilding. Prospective purchasers order houses from a builder or, in the case of the prefabricated housing industry, the manufacturer, just like any other product. The land is sourced and purchased by the homeowner, who often also takes on the responsibility for statutory permissions, approvals and the costs of providing any infrastructure.
In this scenario, the design quality, aesthetics, functionality and durability of the house, as a product, are prime considerations for the purchaser and consequently, driven by market forces, for the housebuilder or manufacturer as well. They respond by developing, updating and customising their products.
The average German timber frame manufacturer directs a great deal of effort towards achieving quality - of design, manufacture, finish, fixtures & fittings and technical performance.
While the UK market is almost overwhelmingly dominated by factory manufactured, open panel, platform frame systems, a typical German timber frame manufacturer produces a post and beam / closed panel hybrid system.
`Interestingly, the amount of value added to the product by the manufacturer, both in the factory and on site, means that often they do not need to produce a huge number of houses to generate an acceptable profit. Some of the manufacturers visited were relatively small family firms that produced between 200 and 400 houses each year.'
A full report of the mission `Modern methods of construction in Germany - playing the off-site rule'is available - (the file is 4 MB, and therefore takes a while to download, approx. time 4/5 minutes) click here to download PDF.
TRADA Technology has 15 hardcopies of the report to give away to the first 15 respondents to email Charlotte Andrews on
Top image - Top end timber frame timber clad house by Baufritz with basement and roofline conservatory. Conservatory contains hot-tub and can be lifted using integral hydraulic rams!
Bottom image - Completed panels with windows being loaded onto trailers ready for transport at the Carl Platz factory
A DTI-sponsored expert mission to study the German prefabricated housing industry brought back `transferable lessons' for UK timber frame manufacturers, according to Paul Newman of TRADA Technology.
The average German timber frame manufacturer directs a great deal of effort towards achieving quality - of design, manufacture, finish, fixtures & fittings and technical performance.