Britain, one of the countries that is embracing modular in a big way with encouragement from their government is about to take a giant leap in how to produce new housing.
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| Urban Splash modular factory production floor |
Developer Sekisui House will use “Japanese expertise” to drive a ten-fold increase in the modular housing output of UK developer Urban Splash, according to the boss of the firm’s UK operation.
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| Sekisui House production floor |
Japanese housing giant Sekisui House took a 35% stake in Urban Splash this year, allowing the Manchester-based developer to continue to develop its modular housing product.
Following the deal – which took 27 months to secure – the Japanese firm established a team of four executives in London which it expects to help boost capacity at the UK firm’s Alfreton factory eventually from 200 homes a year to 2,000.
Sekisui House, which has already built more than 2.4 million homes across the Far East, Australia and the US and has 3,000 architects and 1,000 R&D specialists, has been looking to expand into new markets for some time.
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| Sekisui House interior |
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| Sekisui House interior |
The firm was aware of the housing situation in the UK where the government has set the sector a target of delivering 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.
While countries like England, Sweden and Poland are quickly becoming the new faces of modular, the United States, a leader in modular construction, seems to be holding back from joining their industry siblings in adopting the newest trends.
Yes, the US is opening more specialized modular factories today than we have in the past 25 years and yes, we are beginning to embrace automation and innovation in those new factories but the majority of those new factories are designed to meet the cookie cutter demands of commercial construction more than single family home construction.
Which brings forth the question of “Why are there few new SFH modular factories being built in the United States, especially East of the Mississippi?
