ZED Pods starts starter home production with over 60 units now in
- FutureBuild Stand F1 - 5-7 March London ExCel
Wallington, 20 February 2019: ZED Pods, the company behind a new concept in modular low-carbon starter homes, kicks off 2019 with 65 units in planning or pre-application at sites across the UK including Lincoln, Essex and London. This exceeds the company's planned 2018 start-up target of 60 housing units.
Manufacturing has also started on the first 11 prefabricated homes at ZED Pods' selected manufacturing partner in Peterborough. This includes nine one-bed and two two-bed units, all designed for installation raised above the ground, normally in car parks, a key design feature for customers who intend to make use of existing parking provisions beneath.
"Hard work during the past year to explain the Pod concept and the opportunity this brings to make use of hard to use windfall sites is now starting to pay dividends," explains Dr Rehan Khodabuccus, ZED Pod's Operations Director. "Local Authorities and developers are particularly attracted to the fact that our Pod homes can be built over existing parking or on land outside the development plan to deliver rapid, affordable, low energy housing solutions for sale or rent."
"In this way, ZEDPod housing can add to a Local Authority's existing housing allocation, while existing car parks continue to function. A flexible design approach with different housing styles to maximise each plot, combined with rapid installation, a design life the same as typical timber frame buildings and the fact that Pod developments can be designed to be moved to different sites if requirements change, are also important factors for many of the councils we are talking to," he added.
To meet expected demand, the company is continuing to refine the production process to speed up build times and deliver efficiencies. Currently, it takes the team 10 days to build a single unit, ready for transportation and delivery to site. By overlapping production and further experimentation the team hopes to significantly improve this with the goal of four Pods per week.
Following the success of Ecobuild 2018, the company again will be at FutureBuild, 5-7 March 2019, at Excel London. Housing Associations and Local Authorities wanting to learn more about the Pod and ZED Pods' innovative ways of delivering affordable homes on council-owned sites should visit the team at Stand F1.
As a dry construction technique is required for factory-built homes, ZED Pods use cross-laminated timber (CLT) for the frame, walls and floors. CLT is more dimensionally stable than a timber frame so does not shrink or settle and is far easier to transport from the factory to site and lift in place. CLT has a low embodied carbon content, is sustainably sourced and had exception fire rating qualities, so ZED Pods feel it is ideal for factory build homes.
