Lunched at international property industry show MIPIM in Cannes earlier this year, nHouse is a prefabricated, modular home designed by Studio RHE, the practice of architect Richard Hywel Evans. Intended as a partial solution to the shortage and poor standards of volume housing, it offers an attractive, practical and eminently affordable alternative. The two-storey, three-bedroom homes have greater floor-to-ceiling heights and glazing areas than the vast majority of what’s on offer elsewhere. They also provide 25 per cent more space.
The spacious homes can stand-alone or be arranged in either semi-detached or terraced groupings. The houses are supplied in four factory-finished units, which ‘click together’ on site with a new technology for which the patent is pending. This system contributes to the fact that this elegant alternative to the kit house, which is more vulnerable to poor on-site assembly, can be delivered for as little as £190,000 in just three days.
The houses come entirely finished, right down to the lightbulbs, and are packed with environmentally-minded technological features such as solar roofing that powers a home and car battery pack, and rainwater-recycling guttering. This level of attention to detail extends to the bathrooms, which – in keeping with the forward-looking approach elsewhere – are designed with VitrA sanitaryware. Product ranges on offer in the modular house include basins, units and accessories from the Nest range, the Neon bath, and elements from the Sento and M-line collections as well as a selection of VitrA showers and taps. VitrA’s ability to supply all the elements of a bath-room make it ideal for the prefabricated approach, and also offers difficult-to-beat choice and availability.
Richard Hywel Evans explains his thinking: ‘Often I see these standard houses being produced which are mostly built on a budget with an eye on the bottom line, rather than focusing on the happiness of the end occupier. A home isn’t just a machine for living in, it’s somewhere that captures your heart and shapes your life, so it needs to be special.
‘I designed the nHouse as I wanted to put design first and see if we can build a home that makes people happy and yet still allows the building industry to make a sufficient profit. By utilising the latest technology and materials, we have built a home with space, light and design in mind. The nHouse could help provide more homes by significantly speeding up the building process and providing cost effective homes that people genuinely want to live in.’