Keyhouse – The 12 Hour House! – A revolutionary flat pack system for house builders.
“Keyhouse is a new concept in factory built homes putting the house builder firmly in control”
Some modular or volumetric residential solutions are offering the house builder the promise of a turnkey home, delivered complete with even the kitchen fitted. The concept sounds great but the cost and lack of design flexibility can leave the house builder feeling a little squeezed when it comes to margins.
Keyhouse however, offers the best of both worlds to the house builder. In just 12 hours the flat pack assembly of the Keyhouse delivers the complete structure of a brick finish on a robust concrete outer leaf with an internal insulated timber frame, along with floor cassettes, staircase and a pre-tiled roof. This enables the house builder to add additional value and offer home buyers personal choice of finishes.
The Keyhouse flat pack system has inherent design flexibility and can be adapted to suit most house types and can also accommodate ‘stepped’ and ‘staggered’ site layouts. With no requirement for scaffolding or working at height this system has a positive effect on Health & Safety requirements, logistics and cost. The KeyHouse solution can also be adapted to a three storey build with a room in roof house type giving the home owner additional flexibility.
This innovative house design has 7 no Patents approved proving how revolutionary even further how our Keyhouse concept is putting the house builder firmly in control!
This project has demanded and will continue to demand collaboration from a cross functional team of Architects, Engineers and Quantity Surveyors. It has challenged them to change and adapt their well-known methodologies to accommodate new thinking and strategies employed by other sectors through application of new product development in MMC within the construction industry. We have engaged with our local College to partner in the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) and feel through this partnership we will continue to challenge traditional design and construction techniques understood and taught by the academic team and apply these to new applications.
This partnership will help contribute to and learn from the design, specification, production, testing and trial building components of the project. The KTP will extend knowledge in implementing accurate design strategies, product validation and safety & regulatory requirements. Using these subject areas, the project will enable the college to deliver case studies and guest lectures by the graduate and company staff. Experience gained from this project will feed back as practical & technical knowledge and will enhance work undertaken on a number of undergraduate courses as well as providing placement opportunities with the company. The delivery of innovative design alongside enhanced working practices will be of interest to the wider construction industry and the College plan to disseminate this through relevant journals and trade magazines.
Key achievements
- In just 12 hours the flat pack assembly of the Keyhouse delivers the complete structure of a brick finish on a robust concrete outer leaf with an internal insulated timber frame, along with floor cassettes, staircase and a pre-tiled roof.
- New concept for Modern Method of Construction which is putting the house builder firmly in control with flexibility to meet their design requirements
- Positive feedback from the leading House Builders in the UK ‘Barratt Homes, Taylor Wimpey, Strata Homes and Avant Homes’ who have all viewed our Keyhouse and are interest in possible collaboration projects to carry out trials.
