At a time when housing shortages and a top-heavy real estate market conspire to make the dream of homeownership seem out of reach for so many, prefabricated housing has become an increasingly trendy solution.
And while some believe planning prefab structures can be done algorithmically, a few of the U. K. ’s sharpest architectural minds are now lending their talents to the modular housing boom as well.
The mission of property-development start-up Cube Haus is to shake up the housing market by putting prefabs on small, awkwardly shaped lots. To do that, they’re working with Land Converter to identify these parcels of space and offering housing designs from architectural luminaries like David Adjaye, Faye Toogood, Carl Turner Architects, and Skene Catling de la Peña to occupy them.
A rendering of David Adjaye’s design.
Each designer has developed a modular prototype of 500 square feet or more that can be structurally flexible enough to navigate the unique challenges that come from building on small plots like gardens and building roofs. Adjaye’s, for example, drew inspiration from his Sunken House in Hackney, while Skene Catling de la Peña built outward from a central terra-cotta core that plays a multifunctional role in everything from heating to cooking.
Though the approaches differed, the modular homes will share common structural elements and construction methods. All will largely be manufactured offsite at U. K. factories, heavily utilizing cross-laminated timber (a fact that certainly informed the interior aesthetic of these spaces) and other sustainable materials in their construction.
Skene Catling de la Peña’s design.
Cube Haus plans to sell these prefab homes in the £700,000–£800,000 range. While that may lead some to see them as a less-than-affordable housing solution, Cube Haus cofounder Philip Bueno de Mesquita told Wallpaperthat the homes are at least “accessible to people who wouldn’t consider using an architect,” and certainly not such high-caliber firms as these.
Currently, plans are in motion to put up five such homes in neighborhoods across the greater London area. To help expedite the process, Land Converter is offering to pay landowners 25 percent of what the newly built homes on their subdivided properties are ultimately worth. Through this strategy, Cube Haus hopes to have 100 up and running within the next five years.
Carl Turner Architects devised a modern black design.
Though 100 homes by 2023 is hardly an adequate solution to London’s housing situation, the Cube Haus project hopes to eventually prove that affordable, modular housing and high-end design aren’t mutually exclusive. “The aim is to build up a portfolio of building types that can be scaled up for sites that can accommodate a bigger number of units,” Bueno de Mesquita told The Guardian. “That’s when it starts to get really interesting: affordable housing designed by some of the most exciting names working in architecture today. ”