Project Details
- Client Name: Stonewater
- Project Value: £10m
- Sector: Residential
- Services: Employers Agent, Quality Control Inspectors
- Key partners: Boutique Modern
- Contact: Os Kamil – 020 8294 1000
The 2.4-acre site at Cripps Avenue in Peacehaven was previously a storage and maintenance yard for a plant and haulage company. Whilst the site was predominantly clear of permanent buildings the ground held many concrete pads, tanks, pits and the associated contamination. At the top of the site there stood a derelict brick-built house (c. 1960), with a disused covered swimming pool to its rear.
The site was purchased by Stonewater with existing planning for 40 much-needed affordable new homes, traditionally designed for conventional construction. Stonewater choose to embark on 100% modular form of build.
Boutique Modern subsequently returned to planning with minor changes to the scheme to enable volumetric off-site MMC to be used. Site clearance began in the summer of 2021 and went largely as expected. Once all reusable materials and the contaminants had been removed from site, the remaining material was crushed and reused in the ground.
Early probe investigations revealed Solution Features and the Belowground Design Team began to investigate suitable foundations to mitigate these features. A piled slab was recommended, in some cases these piles extended to 20m into the chalk sub-soil before reaching the required resistance.
Modular manufacture started at the Boutique Modern factory, which is located 2.5 miles from the site in July 2021. Each house comprises of four modules and produced a house every week and stored them ready for install once the groundworks were complete. In total 142 modules were used to construct the 40 new Homes.
Each component part and connection in the Boutique Modern build system is LABC Approved.
Boutique Modern apply a fabric-first approach to design. Whilst fully complying with the structural longevity and fire regulations demanded by all warranty providers, The materials range has gone through detail carbon analysis and scoring and a circular economy assessment to establish its potential for re-use in future. Boutique Modern work along audited B Corporation principals and achieve minimal material waste in manufacture.
The project has utilised Cat1 MMC (modern methods of construction), thereby minimising carbon in Scopes 1, 2 & 3 and reducing waste below 10%.
Groundworks were completed in June 2022 and began delivering the first houses to Phase 1 (31 houses and flats) just as the factory switched to manufacturing the nine one- and two-bedroom flats to Phase 2. The project is in its final stages and was complete in February 2023.
