Is prefabrication the solution to the undersupply of housing?
First, let’s consider the primary reason the undersupply exists. Fundamentally, the housing crisis is not caused by how the building is procured but by the fact that the planning systems do not release enough land for building. This puts pressure on developers to maximise the efficiency and value of the available land, particularly brownfield land where the costs of remediation affect viability. Two of Swan Hill’s brownfield developments illustrate this perfectly. Both are valuable sites, one in the town centre in Clifton, Bristol, the other in the centre of the village of Watersfield, Sussex. Both sites are irregular in shape and the Clifton project includes refurbishment of an existing building. To maximise their positions within the surrounding buildings, both require asymmetrical floor plans with unequal-length walls. Flexibility of design is therefore a key ingredient in the success of both developments; the use of modular design or fixed bathroom units would have inhibited it. Ta
