Packed with potential
Society Guardian, 18.05.2005

Tłumaczenie na język polski

They cost less to build - and to live in - and take half the time to construct. But what are prefabricated homes like and will they ever take off in Britain? Matt Weaver investigates.

Later today, five lorries from Poland will arrive in south London with a curious cargo. Several huge crates will be lifted by crane on to a site in Camberwell. These "pods" - ready made apartments built in a factory in Krakow - represent the latest attempt to solve the UK's housing crisis. By the end of next month, they will be home to key public sector workers.

When complete, the £1.45m Wyndham Road scheme will provide 18 homes. Six flats are already in place, delivered from Krakow's Buma factory earlier this month, and bolted together into a three-storey block by Buma's own workers, who have been (temporarily) imported from Poland for the task.

The government has high hopes for prefab housing, and the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, will formally open the Wyndham scheme. Pods, he believes, will deliver thousands of new homes in the south-east of England, though it is unclear whether the British public will be as enthusiastic.

The Buma pods feel reassuringly solid, even though they can be taken apart and moved to other sites. When you stamp on the floor it does not wobble like many prefab buildings. Each pod is a maximum of 3.3m wide - any bigger and transportation becomes a logistical nightmare because a police escort is required. Despite this restriction, the flats are light and roomy inside. Standing in one is not like being the human version of a battery hen.

From the outside, there is no disguising the contemporary way the homes are put together. They are clad in steel, with the joins of each pod clearly visible. During the planning process, some people in a nearby conservation area protested about their modern appearance, but their objections were overruled. It is true that there is such a hotchpotch of building types in the area that the new buildings do not seem out of place.

The pods are delivered complete with carpets, lights, fitted bathrooms, and Ikea kitchens. The scheme's developer, Hyde Housing Association, describes the flats as "urban chic living" - although the fashion police might quibble with this. The flecked blue carpets are a bit 1980s, and the decor a little bland. But a nurse or a teacher struggling to find affordable accommodation in London would likely snap up the offer of living in one.

A one-bedroom flat will cost £100 a week to rent, and a two-bedroom will be £150 a week. Although this is more than the going rate for traditional social housing, it is still well below levels in the private rented market.

Psychiatric nurse Teresa Delaney lives in nearby Stockwell in an almost identical Buma home that Hyde built last summer. "They don't look like municipal housing," she says. "They are stylish and modern, and the design inside is well thought out." She has also overcome any initial worries about how her flat was put together. "I did have some concerns when they told me about how it was built. But it is no less homely than any other new home. My friends really like it. They all want one."

Prescott wants other developers to follow Hyde's example. Frustrated at spiralling building costs, the government sees modern construction methods as the key to kickstarting currently sluggish rates of housebuilding. The theory is that if homes are manufactured like cars on an assembly line, they will be quicker and cheaper to build, as well as more energy efficient.

The trouble is that these benefits will only be realised if a large volume of homes are built in this way. In Britain, few housebuilders are willing to do so. The government has insisted that a greater proportion of the new-build affordable housing it funds through grants to housing associations is built using modern techniques. Yet Hyde's Camberwell flats show the lengths that housing associations have to go to achieve economies through modern techniques. The homes work out cheaper than traditionally built housing because the Polish workers who put them together are paid less than half the UK minimum wage.

Mike Kirk, Hyde's development director, is still convinced that this is the way to build more homes. "I definitely think this is a goer," he says. "It may involve bussing modules 1,000 miles across Europe - these are great lengths to go to - but somebody has got to take a risk to find ways of increasing housing supply."

Kirk points out that the homes only take three months to build - half the time of conventional brick and mortar housing. The standard of building is also better, he claims, because it takes place in a controlled factory environment. "These are different from the prefabs built after the war," he says. "They are very good quality and are built to last."

The Polish crew from the Buma factory who have flown over to assemble the scheme agree. "The Poles are born builders - we take pride in our work," says one of them, speaking through a translator during a break. A question about the standard of British building provokes an animated response that disturbs the thick cigarette smoke. Editing out what sounds like Polish expletives, the translator says: "They say what they are building is much better than what they see around them."

Asked why he did not buy British, Kirk says: "It's just a cottage industry in the UK, at moment." He claims that one of the reasons modular housing has failed to take off in Britain so far is that it's difficult to get mortgages on such homes. The problem is that mortgage lenders tend to steer clear of homes that don't get certified by the National House Building Council. "To get it accepted for a mortgage, you need a warranty from the NHBC, and they are incredibly conservative," he says. "There is a fear that modular housing is second world war-ish and a bit substandard."

The NHBC disputes this. Its head of communication, Andrew Howard, says: "We are positive about modern construction methods where they are in the interests of the homeowner." He urges Hyde to submit the Buma homes for assessment. "We need to make sure that products are of a good quality, durable and repairable."

Kirk insists that Buma homes are easy to repair. He claims that all the components that could get damaged are readily available in the UK, and there would be no need to order new parts from Poland.

Others aren't so sure. Sam Webb is councillor of the Royal Institute of British Architects who has spent much of his career exposing faults of the system-built housing of the 1960s and 1970s. "We've been here before," he says. "They look all shiny and new when they are built, but what will they look like in 20 or 30 years? If they want buildings to be like cars, my worry is that they will be like second-hand bangers in a few years' time.

"And what happens if you want to extend a house, or something goes wrong? Buildings need to be flexible. Take a Georgian house: they have served as houses, flats, offices, even schools. It's a flexible form of construction that I don't think we have improved upon."

Hank Dittmar, chief executive of Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, calls for a proper study on the costs of modern construction techniques. "You need to look not only at the cost of construction but the whole life cycle costs," he says. "If the Buma home is 10% cheaper but only lasts 50% as long as a traditional home, then it's not really a cost saving."

Dittmar, a former urban adviser to ex-US president Bill Clinton, is also concerned that local character will be lost in the pursuit of increasing housing numbers. "If you are just pursuing the construction of identical units, it can make it difficult to create architecture that responds to environment and context," he says.

The foundation argues that the facade of buildings should reflect their locality, even if the structure is mass produced. "Terrace housing has always been about mass production and modest detailing with local materials on the front," Dittmar says. "People tend to prefer traditional materials, traditional crafts, and traditional building styles." He admits this may cost more to build, but says it adds value to home and a neighbourhood.

Before moving to her Buma home, Delaney concedes that her tastes were more conventional. "I would have preferred a Georgian building in Hampstead, but they're probably mouldy and damp and difficult to heat," she says. "I've just lived through a winter here, and the house was very warm."

Delaney believes the pods will catch on. "We are pretty conservative in this country," she says. "When it comes to architecture, people like a house with a garden, but once they see this kind of flat they will come round. It feels quite European, not British.

It's so much better than living in a Barratt home stuck out in the middle of nowhere in a non-community. If it wants good schools and hospitals, London needs homes like this for people on moderate incomes. It keeps communities going."

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