Leeds-based sustainable developer Citu is set to build a £3m factory in the city that will make low-carbon houses and create 40 jobs.
Work has started on site to create Citu Works, a new facility located on a 3.5-acre brownfield site in Leeds city centre off Clarence Road, close to Leeds Dock.
The plant will produce the Citu House, a product of a focused innovation grant from national government via Innovate UK in collaboration with Leeds Beckett University.
The new system is in the final stages of research and development and uses an energy efficient timber frame that is designed to perform to the highest environmental standards including passivhaus principles.
Citu, which has an ambition to accelerate the development of zero carbon buildings and neighbourhoods, will initially use the factory to serve demand from its own developments.
The 60,000 sq ft facility has the capacity to produce up to 750 low-carbon homes each year. The developer is investing £3m into the new facility, in addition to a £400,000 grant from the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP).
Timber frame homes commonly are produced in factories across Germany and Scandinavia.
Chris Thompson, managing director and founder of Citu, said: "Factory-built homes represent the future of house building in the UK.
"I've seen the finished product, as well as the manufacturing process, first-hand in Europe and we are excited to be one of the first to introduce the technology to the UK. This technique means less waste and less carbon emissions produced in the building process so, not only does it offer buyers an opportunity to live a low-carbon lifestyle, it reduces our carbon footprint as a developer."
Chris Gorse, professor of construction and project management and director of Leeds Sustainability Institute at Leeds Beckett University, added: "The innovation in the advanced manufacturing process that Chris Thompson and his team have developed is visionary.
"Work in the area is creating local employment opportunities and benefitting from the expertise in low carbon engineering that exists within the region."
Roger Marsh, chairman of the LEP, said: "This funding, from our business grants programme, has ensured Citu have been able to go ahead and establish their new innovative manufacturing base in the Leeds City Region. "
Original link - Insider Media
