AT chats to Rob Wheaton from Stride Treglown about Tai ar y Crd – a pattern book for the efficient delivery of housing using local materials and skills.
What brings you to UKREiiF/ what do you hope to achieve?
We’re hosting a panel on Thursday morning based on the work we’ve done for Welsh government and a group of housing associations. We’ve developed a ‘pattern book’ (Tai ar y Cyd) that aims to introduce standardisation and use economies of scale to deliver low carbon homes faster and less expensively. There’s also a strong economic and skills story as we’ve used Welsh timber and local manufacturers. Our ambition is to understand how this concept could be developed and applied to other parts of the UK. So we’re bringing it to UKREiiF to let people know about what we’ve done and hopefully have some conversations about future opportunities. And at the same time it will be really interesting to see what others are doing in the housing delivery space (a lot I think!) It’s really important to be aware of what people are thinking and doing, what their challenges are to inform any future work.
If you could change one thing about UKREiiF what would it be?
It’s my first time so maybe ask me on 23rd May! I would say just looking at the programme it’s going to be pretty much impossible to get to all the panels and discussions I’d like to, so maybe less would be more?
TaTai ar y Cyd pattern book.
What are you working on at the moment?
It’s a busy time! Gwynfaen, an ultra low carbon housing development just outside Swansea is coming up for completion this summer after almost four years on site. This was the scheme that inspired the pattern book – it was an early example of what could be done and we went on to secure Innovation grant funding.Our next piece of work will be post-occupancy evaluation to understand what it’s actually like to live in a low carbon home, and help inform the Welsh government’s future decarbonisation strategy. Alongside this we’re looking at Tai ar y Cyd phase two. This involves fire testing low carbon insulation in timber framed cassettes which will help us then develop new house types to suit more urban locations, so townhouses and apartments. And we’re continuing to support the ten pilot sites that are current being taken forward, delivering around 450 homes. We’ve created a ‘community of practices’ with regular drop in sessions to share experiences and understand more about delivering on the ground.
What keeps you awake at night?
Not much, I’m a pretty good sleeper! But the pattern book is a really personal project for me and the open source nature of what we’ve produced means it’s out there in the world. I know it’s not perfect or the only solution to housing delivery, but it’s natural to be a bit anxious about potential critical views. Isn’t that the nature of architecture?! But hopefully people will be constructive in their comments that can ultimately lead to better outcomes which is the most important thing.
TaTai ar y Cyd pattern book.
A panel discussion about Tai ar y Cyd and its potential for evolving the concept to help meet the UK’s housing need is taking place at UKREiiF on Thursday 22nd May in the Cratus Group Pavillion. Rob Wheaton will be joined by representatives from Welsh government and Trevallis, one of the housing associations currently using the pattern book to delver a pilot scheme, as well as Jeff Endean from Cast Consultancy and Dr Elizabeth Rapoport of Polygon Place Consulting.
