Building for the Future

Posted by Ideal Modular Homes on 10th September 2020 -

The traditional brick faced, pitched roof houses are still popular today. Looking around most new build estates you’ll see similar styles of homes, which will be around for over 100 years. We need to ask ourselves, does the future generation want that? Are we building homes that will stand the test of time or are they fleeting fashions that will eventually fade and be pulled down?

Ideal Modular Homes is building beautiful and building better, and wants to build modern homes to meet current demands and modern living. It’s been highlighted throughout lockdown just how much someone’s environment can impact them, their health and their opportunities. A home is much more than a roof over your head, it’s somewhere people put down roots to feel a sense of belonging and somewhere families can feel safe. Or it should be, so we need to make sure this is in mind when building new homes. 

Ideal's bespoke service and OURhome initiative are both designed with these needs in mind. Their bespoke service means the client can work with in-house designers to build the homes that they want and need. This means that not every home will look the same, and it can also meet different needs, for different people. 

OURhome is a collaborative approach, from Ideal Modular Homes and shedkm, for high-quality, affordable living through sustainable methods of construction, aimed at housing associations, councils and developers. It's transformative - encouraging more inclusive, sociable communities, and designed to suit different, modern lifestyles and family units with its selection of house types, roof pitch options, and range of cladding options.

Too many homes aren’t suitable to grow old in, an Ideal home is accessible and suitable for all. Ideal's aim is to build beautiful, sustainable homes for everyone at every stage of life. Their homes are flexible, exceeding National Space Standards, and designed to meet future demand. 

There is also countless research highlighting the problems of new build homes, unsafe, damp, unsecure and unsuitable, where families are overcrowded and sharing bedrooms with their children. Research has shown that these issues can negatively impact on a families’ mental health, causing depression and anxiety*. Children living in these unsuitable homes also end up having problems in school, causing issues later in life. Cramped homes, with little light are also affecting the wellbeing of thousands across the country. We need to be building healthy homes for healthy minds, and making them affordable, to eliminate these issues and cause no extra stress for those living in them. 

Sadly, one in five homes don’t meet the Decent Homes standard**.This shouldn’t be the case, we should be building homes future generations can be proud of, not homes they will need to tear down and rebuild. As we evolve and build our way out of the pandemic, we need to keep this in mind and make sure the homes that are being built addresses the lack of flexibility and adaptability. 

Ideal's homes are designed to address these issues and are adaptable and flexible enough to fit any requirements. With large open plan areas to bring families together, while also providing enough space for privacy, and huge windows, flooding the homes with plenty of natural light boosting wellbeing. 

The Government has a target to build 300,000 homes per year by 2025, so local authorities and housing associations are under significant pressures to meet these affordable housing needs quickly, without compromising on sustainability and design. They also have net zero carbon targets to hit while increasing the amount of new build homes.

Homes of the future need to have a positive impact on the environment, and at the moment, traditional builds aren’t. Offsite and timber construction is a sustainable construction method with the potential to deliver high-quality housing, quickly and in a cost-effective way when compared to traditionally built homes. OURhome has the ability to operate at net zero carbon and with one of Ideal's timber builds, their carbon footprint is lowered by up to 75% due to the way the wood sequesters the carbon dioxide in the surrounding air. Not only is Ideal improving the mental health of those living in their homes, they are also ensuring these new homes positively add to the environment by removing carbon dioxide from the air. 

Modern methods of construction can be a welcome solution for all of these issues, organisations need to be looking at the current housing stock and finding new ways to deliver the homes we need. We don’t need to just build more houses, we need to transform them into something future generations will call home. 

*Shelter

** Health