[+] New Era Prefab Winning Fans as Housing Crisis Hero

Modular homes may not be a new concept but they have certainly come a long way from flimsy post-war prefab builds expected to last less than a decade. In fact, prefabricated homes seem to have moved towards the other end of the spectrum, delivering high-end, eco-friendly designs popularised by the likes of Grand Designs , often only accessible to the well-heeled. But as conventional builders collapse and prohibitive development application times and major economic uncertainties are putting longer-term building projects on the rocks , the modular home industry has experienced a “massive” surge in interest. In fact, the Housing Industry Association, which is part of the Prefab Innovation Hub and penned a report last year into barriers to entry in the sector , says that a “vast number of construction projects will move to offsite construction and modular or systems-based construction methods over the next 5, 10 and 20 years”. “But regulatory ambiguities for prefab and modular construction cause uncertainties for all involved parties ... and further, these barriers are clearly impeding the uptake of modular construction and modern methods of construction (MMC) building methodologies,” the HIA says. ▲ Tasmania’s Valley Workshop uses CNC Router technologies to digitally develop its prefabricated homes. Valley Workshop specialises in prefabricated architecturally led buildings and last year won the national Master Builder’s Association Award for the Best Use of Australian Made Products. Based in Tasmania, the company is expanding into NSW, ACT and Victoria this year with projects already on the books following huge demand in these states, says principal architect Warren French. “We have seen exponential growth but started from a very small base,” French says. “Previously, prefabricated buildings got a bad rap—because they were horrible. “But the same truckload of materials that went into those old prefab classrooms could have been put together in a far more imaginative way and the outcome would have been entirely different. “They need not cost more—it’s often the same materials but with more thought and imagination.” Volo Modular is a Yatala-based modular housing maker, and its marketing director, Ashley Glenister, says that there has been a “massive change” in demand. “The weather played a massive part as there were such big delays. “Having a fully covered factory allowed us to keep manufacturing without the outside elements slowing us down. “Though when we had the Covid outbreak we were able to control the spread of Covid by having certain protocols in place, unlike our conventional building company, we weren’t able to make sure the sites weren’t contaminated. “With all the builders going broke at the moment, modular building is becoming a safer and more financially secure way to build.” Diverse approaches The potential opportunity for modular housing is being recognised across the country. Late last month, the Queensland government, as part of its $519-million Government Employee Housing package, launched a “state-of-the-art” prefabrication factory. The QBuild Rapid Accommodation and Apprenticeship Centre in the Brisbane suburb of Eagle Farm will construct prefabricated homes, including frames, flat-packed kitchens and bathrooms for transport while work on site is under way. It will provide housing for government workers on a larger scale, delivering 93 homes by the end of the year “to speed up the delivery of supply in Queensland” and open up unoccupied properties to the rental market. Prototype houses are due to be completed by June 2023, and this is just the start, with the state government ordering thousands more, according to Volo’s Ashley Glenister. “We’ve had a massive influx of enquiries from government and council, so much so, we’re part of the QBuild contract, where were are building over 6500 homes for the Queensland government,” Glenister says. ▲ Manufacturers are diverse in their approaches, with some such as Valley Workshop using engineered wood while others are working with steel frames. In NSW, modular homes have been handled with more caution but the state government invested $350 million in modular housing as temporary accommodation for flood victims in the northern part of the state last year. However, permanent structure takeup in more urban areas across the country has been patchy. In the past two years there have been no applications for modular or prefabricated developments in councils that include Canterbury Bankstown, the City of Sydney, North Sydney or The Hills Shire. The Hills Shire Council general manager, Michael Edgar, told The Urban Developer that one of the issues was that as greenfield sites within Sydney began to dry up, higher-density apartments would be key. “However, we need to restore confidence in this type of housing again. It’s unfortunate that we are seeing new apartment buildings with major defects.” This, however, provides an opportunity for other types of housing, including modular and prefabricated homes on existing plots, Edgar says. “Demand for duplexes, granny flats and studio housing options are on the rise as families seek housing that allows for multiple generations to live at the same address, but within their own private homes. “The council has also increased the maximum permitted size of secondary homes in its rural areas and this will help provide more affordable housing options to keep families together on the one property as well as protect the rural regions from urban sprawl.” Recognising the need to remove the obstacles for alternative housing options, the new NSW government also committed to the introduction of a “whole-of-construction-sector” building Act. “The Department of Customer Service is engaging directly with industry stakeholders following a public consultation in 2022 on draft reforms to prefabricated building work oversight,” a NSW Fair Trading spokesperson told The Urban Developer. “Key changes include clearer obligations around design, construction and certification of building work, and creating consistent regulatory approaches for prefabricated building work across the local government, planning and building systems.” ▲ Swedish flatpack specialists Ikea have teamed with developers Skanska in Europe to deliver prefabricated terraced and townhouse developments. The Housing Institute of Australia has long lauded modular homes as a potential solution to housing issues, launching a paper last year to identify regulatory obstacles offsite constructed buildings. “This project identified there are several initiatives governments can implement to assist the industry; including a new section in the National Construction Code (NCC) to clarify many ambiguities in the technical construction requirements and explicitly recognising prefab, tiny homes and modular construction in planning codes as an acceptable form of construction,” the HIA says. “These barriers are clearly impeding the productivity benefits that industry and governments understand and expect to flow from the prefabricated building sector.” Valley Workshop’s French says that the issues lie in building rather than planning. “It’s interesting, because if you go to the broadacre subdivision around cities, every house is built the same,” he says. “But at the construction stage, we do get more scrutiny than conventional builders. “Ours are outside the experience of the building surveyors and authorities; they may not have seen construction methods similar to what we’re using, hence the scrutiny.” There are also some changes which could be made to aid the speed of the development process. “Modular builders should become a certified supplier under HIA and document through a webportal their build process,” says Volo’s Ashley Glenister. “Currently it’s taking up to 14 weeks for a DA to go throug with emails going backwards and forwards without an agreed build hold process.” Modern techniques Prefabricated and modular homes of course come in many different shapes and sizes, which could account for the confusion at all levels of governance. “We are atypical of the prefabrication industry, in that most of it is directed towards modular homes, whereas we are flatpack,” French says. “With us, a house is built of a smaller number of large elements rather than a large number of small elements. We are prefabricating big pieces in the workshop, and the advantage of that is that digital fabrication is terribly accurate. “We don’t use tradesmen with saws and hammers, we use CNC [Computer Numerical Control] routers—basically the same machine used to make kitchen cupboards but we’re using it to make a 3D jigsaw puzzle.” ▲ Estimates suggest that some prefabricated homes require 84 per cent less energy than a traditionally built home. This subsequently means a smaller team is required and only some of them need to be specialised. It also means that there are some major environmental benefits to modular and prefabricated housing, with in-built insulated panels lowering energy use or the use of locally sourced materials, cutting down the environmental impact of the construction phase. The new age of technology-enabled prefab homes also mean that diverse frontages and designs are more accessible than ever, a move away from traditional cookie-cutter residential developments. “Prefabrication historically has been geared towards replication but it doesn’t have to be. We’re architect-led and all you’re doing is creating a digital record for a machine, so it’s infinitely adaptable,” says French. “We’re headed down this track to free up architectural design, so they don’t have to conform to standard shapes and dimensions.” The housing crisis in Australia is of course complex and there is no singular silver bullet which will alleviate it. And the HIA acknowledged that just because a house may be able to be built more quickly it doesn’t mean that it is a solution to the problem. “Problems pertaining to land release, planning, finance, red tape, supply, labour, and tax are all major contributors to the problem,” an organisation spokesperson says. However, prefabricated buildings could alleviate some of the major issues impacting the construction industry now, which is spread thin over many projects with precarious fixed-price contracts and labour shortages. “You can build you own house right now, but it is so intensely discouraged that owner builders are a rare breed,” says French. “However, if we prefabricate in a very clever way, an owner-builder can build their own house, which will save a great deal of money, and relieve the housing shortage. It relieves the in-demand building companies. “It will take a big mindset change, from councils and from the building industry, because they will see it as a threat, but it is a solution with some real benefits.” To access more exclusive content and events join our growing TUD Plus membership. Click here to learn more.

[+] New Era Prefab Winning Fans as Housing Crisis Hero

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