Beechwood Village

Swan Housing is creating 1,000 new homes in Beechwood Village, Basildon. More than 560 will be built offsite, of which 251 homes will be custom designed by the buyers. The custom build configurator is on display at the Building Centre in London until end of November 2017.

About this project

Swan Housing is working in partnership with Basildon Borough Council and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to regenerate the 1960’s Craylands Estate in Basildon.

The project will result in nearly 1,000 new dwellings in Beechwood Village, 400 of which have already been built using traditional building methods.

The next phase of the regeneration project will see a further 560 homes built using modular, offsite construction methods, 251 of which will be custom designed homes for sale. The entire project is due to be completed by 2024.

Use of Timber

The modular homes will be built from sustainable cross-laminated timber (CLT), made from softwood timber grown in sustainably managed forests.

The timber will be cut and the houses assembled in Swan’s new modular housing factory based in Basildon. The factory will create up to 40 jobs and, when operating at full capacity, it is expected to deliver up to 300 CLT homes per year.

The benefits of offsite construction

The new modular and custom homes will be constructed by Nu Build, a company set up by the Swan Group to manufacture homes for its own development projects. By building the homes offsite, Swan aims to deliver cost and construction efficiencies throughout the development programme.

John Synnuck, Swan’s chief executive said, “At Swan we understand the desperate need for quality new homes. We believe that offsite construction methods will enable us to deliver these much needed homes quickly, designed to a high specification and with reduced impact on both local residents and the environment.”

Geoff Pearce, executive director development and regeneration, continued, “Swan is truly committed to delivering innovation. Offsite construction is commonly used overseas and the homes are indistinguishable from ones that are built using more traditional methods. We already have our own in-house skilled construction team and so, as both the constructor and developer of the homes, we are perfectly placed to manage the process of building homes offsite efficiently and to the highest standards.”

The modules will be fitted out internally in the factory; including partitioning, electrics, plumbing, floor finishes, kitchens, bathrooms, painting and internal finishes.

Once the modules are built, they will be delivered to site where they will be connected to services, clad in a selection of materials and roofed.

Custom build options

251 of the new modular homes will be custom build, enabling buyers to choose from a wide selection of options to specify the internal layout and the external look of their house, to personalise their home to their own requirements and tastes.

To help customers choose from over a million different house configurations, Swan is developing an online configuration tool which will allow buyers to experiment with their choices before they decide on the final design of their new home.

Carl Vann, Partner at Pollard Thomas Edwards commented: “This is a fantastic opportunity, not only to regenerate a tired estate, but also to provide something really unique: genuinely customisable new homes at an affordable price.”

Beechwood West will be featured at Pollard Thomas Edwards’ exhibition at the NLA from 3 November until 29 November - http://www.newlondonarchitecture.org