Oxley Woods, Milton Keynes (UK) / Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

© Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

The british arquitect Richard Rogers, recently awarded with the Pritzker award, has produced in conjunction with the also british promoter George Wimpey a series of houses based on prefabricated elements. The main objetive is to reduce the construction costs, reflecting this in the final cost of the house.

The flexible design allows the owners to choose among different interior finishings by changing the distribution depending on the needs thanks to movable walls and prefabricated modules.

One of the key components of these buildings is what the developers have called “EcoHat”. This system allows the reuse of hot air to optimze the energy consumption.

The prefabs are very popular in the United States and have a good market in Scandinavia but that does not apply to the rest of Europe.

© 7-T Ltd.

Step by step, these kinds of houses are gaining share of market due to several reasons. In this case because of the government iniciative and impulse. To cope with the the big difficulties that young people face with the real state market in UK, authorities have decided to experiment new ways of thinking. First class arquitects will play an important role in this development (Oxley Park), which will be situated in Milton Keynes, north-east from London.

© Grant Smith / View

It is probable that the public housing promoters will start to use this type of construction in a more ¿¿generalizated?? common way, not only in the UK but also in the rest of Europe