Yorkon News Archives

24/07/2001 – First factory-built affordable housing scheme outside London is launched

Yorkshire Housing and City of York Council have announced the start of the first affordable housing scheme outside London to be built in a factory.

Built on a brownfield site in York, the four-storey Sixth Avenue Apartments development is designed by Cartwright Pickard Architects and will be built by modular construction specialist and Portakabin subsidiary, Yorkon – the highly successful team involved in the award winning Murray Grove housing scheme in Hackney.

Due for completion in early 2002, the project will provide 24 much needed affordable homes in York in less than eight months. Built to Housing Corporation standards, 48 steel-framed modules will be arranged in an L-shaped configuration creating a private landscaped courtyard.

Each elevation will be clad in Western red cedar, which is an architectural first for the city of York, and is in keeping with the scheme's suburban location. Timber decked balconies to the quieter street-side elevation will offer attractive views over the surrounding landscape.

Councillor Viv Kind, City of York Council's Executive Member for Housing, said, “This is a very exciting project which is going to provide low maintenance, high quality, innovative homes for people in York who are unable to compete in the city's high cost, high demand housing market. The project also means the Council can meet its commitment – shared by the Government – to develop brownfield sites, encourage sustainable development and promote partnerships.”

Councillor Kind added, “The development also marks a new way of working with a building company. I think it is very fitting that we have chosen to do so with a pioneering, locally-based modular building specialist such as Yorkon, whose work will help us meet our aims whilst employing local workers.”

Bill Payne, Chief Executive of Yorkshire Housing said, “York's high land prices and increasing demand for housing makes the provision of affordable homes more and more challenging. Our aim is to explore new and innovative methods of building in line with the Government's agenda to help us meet this level of demand, quickly, efficiently and with minimal disruption to people living locally.”

“We are very pleased that the scheme is using a local firm, Yorkon, who have been setting new standards in the application of off-site construction to social housing. This is the first truly affordable scheme of its type in the North and will hopefully lead the way in procuring similar developments in the future.”

Keith Blanshard, Director and General Manager of Yorkon said, “The Sixth Avenue project applies all the lessons learnt from the team's involvement in the acclaimed Murray Grove housing scheme. We will be using a different modular arrangement which suits this brownfield site, to create larger apartments with larger but fewer modules. This will further improve efficiency and speed of construction.”

“The design of the Sixth Avenue scheme demonstrates the flexibility of modular construction”, said James Pickard of Cartwright Pickard Architects. “The modular technique offers a high degree of architectural variety, which allows us to relate the building to its suburban situation, whilst maximising the available space on site to the benefit of the tenants and the developer.”

Manufacture of the modules will begin at Yorkon's 60-acre production facility in York this month for delivery to site in the autumn. The fully fitted apartments will be craned into position with all plumbing, electrics, doors, windows, bathrooms, kitchens and tiling already in place.