星空传媒

It鈥檚 all here in black and white 鈥� or rather in some rather tasteful toning shades of red and cream. This is housebuilding the way the government wants it to be, with modern methods of construction, environmentally friendly technology housed in a rooftop 鈥渆co-hat鈥�, a top-notch design courtesy of Richard Rogers Partnership (RRP), and an affordable price tag. In fact, perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Oxley Grange scheme in Milton Keynes is that George Wimpey is developing it for its Daily Express-reading mainstream market.

These are the first built homes to emerge from English Partnerships鈥� Design for Manufacture (DfM) competition. Before the scheme鈥檚 sales launch on 5 May, Regenerate had an exclusive tour of the site with George Wimpey鈥檚 development team to find out how it is translating the competition鈥檚 and Rogers鈥� objectives into marketable end product. The Design for Manufacture competition was launched two years ago to demonstrate issues high on the government鈥檚 agenda, among them, that good quality, cost-effective homes could be built without sacrificing sustainability standards and land values. Former deputy prime minister John Prescott vociferously championed the contest, which became known as the 拢60k house competition because entrants were set the challenge of creating a house that could be built for that sum as part of the competition brief. There were high hopes that the competition would be a catalyst for change in design and delivery.

Wimpey was one of seven winners of the competition and is developing 145 apartments and houses on the site. As the home of the Homeworld, Energy World and Future World show villages in the 1980s and 90s, Milton Keynes is a fitting location for housebuilding鈥檚 brave new world, but local homebuyers haven鈥檛 seen anything like this since then. In fact, George Wimpey has tempered one key aspect of the initial design concept in its bid to win buyers over to RRP鈥檚 colourful brand of modernism.

The approach road to the site is marked by a cream mono-pitched building with brilliant orange windows and doors. RRP wanted the homes鈥� details to be accentuated in its trademark bright colours and this Tangoed example was to be the site鈥檚 showhome. Graeme Dodds, divisional managing director with Wimpey, explains: 鈥淲e started building the show unit in October and had it 90% complete for an anticipated November launch, but then decided that we needed to do something different. It looked too stark.鈥� Since then the building has served as a prototype, allowing Wimpey to test and tweak the homes.

For the most part the finished homes are true to the competition-winning intentions of the Wimpey/RRP team. Instead of traditional brick, the homes are built using timber frame, Trespa cladding panels, and topped with a red-coloured single-ply roof membrane. They use environmentally friendly materials, such as recycled newsprint insulation, and have the distinctive eco-hat, a roof lantern sited above the bathroom containing the homes鈥� eco-features: ventilation, a heat exchanger and, in top-of-the- range homes, a solar panel. The homes have many design features that wouldn鈥檛 be found in a mass housebuilding product, such as openable wall panels to provide ventilation, a skylight above the stairs, a wet room, recessed curtain tracks, floor to ceiling doors and windows extending to the ceiling lining.

The housebuilder brought designers Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway into the project late last year to change the scheme鈥檚 colour palette from bold primaries to toning reds. Wimpey also had to change build technology when the supplier of the steel modular technology it intended to work with went into liquidation. The homes are now being built from closed panel timber frame by Wood Newton under a full turnkey operation. A two-bedroom house is made from just 11 wall panels, three roof panels, and five floor panels, a big reduction on the 50 to 60 panel components in the standard timber frame house. The timber frame has brought standardisation, but the design of almost every home on the site is different.

Although many of the homes are joined, each is, in construction terms, detached as all party walls are external walls. Timber panels 3m wide by up to 12m high for a three storey house, pre-clad with Panelvent sheathing board, are used to form the side wall of each house. The homes are assembled using crane, scissor lift and cherry picker. Wimpey site manager Nigel Mitchell points out: 鈥淥ne key advantage of the build method is that it is very safe to erect.鈥�

While Wood Newton is predominantly building the homes, Wimpey still has plenty to do on site. Wimpey South Midlands regional managing director Peter Gurr says: 鈥淲e are providing the co-ordinating role. The decision to go turnkey goes back to the original intention and system of doing as much as possible offsite.鈥� Although timber was the second choice build material, Wimpey is pleased at its working arrangement with Wood Newton. Dodds says: 鈥淭heir senior management are very innovative. One of the lessons for us from the project is to learn how to transpose timber frame into traditional housing systems.鈥�

The project is far from fully built 鈥� only a streetscene of homes is complete so far 鈥� but for Wimpey the big challenges to date have come from delivering RRP鈥檚 intentions. Dodds says: 鈥淲e had to interpret what they wanted and align that with what we could physically do in a 拢60k house. This is a coming together of a great concept with our pragmatism. RRP has bought into it.鈥�

Ask the Wimpey team what they think of the end product, and Dodds says he would happily live in it. Gurr adds: 鈥淲hen you see one house you think that it doesn鈥檛 look right, but the streetscene has come together well. There is a wow factor to it.鈥� Prospective buyers can learn how a house is built in an education centre, being created in the lone building at the site entrance. But the real test comes on 5 May when buyers will judge whether to put down money on a home that not only looks different but has no openable bathroom window.

With selling prices expected to range from 拢200,000 to 拢450,000, and the house design specifically fitting the initial DfM brief 鈥� an 820ft2 two-bedroom, two-storey unit 鈥� scheduled to sell at around 拢240,000, the cost of a house is reasonable, but a long way from the 拢60k figure loudly trumpeted by Prescott two years ago. Dodds says: 鈥淭hat was always a bit of a misnomer, it was a build cost. The selling price will be on a level with traditional housing in the area, at around 拢220 per square foot, but there is a small hope that we will get a premium here.鈥�

But will the scheme be the catalyst for change and, directly, would Wimpey do something similar again? Dodds says: 鈥淚n principle yes, if the customer likes it. It would be a pity if after all this we didn鈥檛.鈥� But RRP鈥檚 orange doors and windows will soon be just a memory. The housebuilder plans to repaint them in a more muted shade for the sales launch.

One point worth making

"We have still got to see the commerciality of it. The sales people will have to learn to sell the fine details"
Graeme Dodds, divisional managing director, George Wimpey

What is worth repeating

BRE will monitor the homes to see how they compare with a traditional George Wimpey site on factors ranging from construction to sustainability. Wimpey is looking at how it can translate this project into a research and development programme to help it improve product and deliver more environmentally friendly homes moving towards zero carbon.

Products used:

Roof membrane: Flag
External cladding: Trespa
Insulation: Warmcel

Project team

Client: George Wimpey
RSL: Paradigm Housing Association
Architect: Richard Rogers Partnership
Project management: Anser Project Managers
Cost consultant: MDA
Services consultant: Rybka M&E
Ecohomes consultant: PRC
Timber frame: Wood Newton