We’re delighted to report that we’ve completed 15 new affordable modular homes on McCreery Road in Sherborne, Dorset and handed them over to Magna Housing.
We manufactured the homes in our factory near Bournemouth and installed them on the site, where all preparation up to ground floor level, highway construction, drainage and landscaping was carried out by the main contractor Fisher & Dean.
McCreery Road is the third site we have completed as part of a partnership with Magna Housing, Wiltshire Council, the South West Procurement Alliance (SWPA) and consultants Taylor Lewis to deliver almost 1,000 new homes in the South West.
The new affordable homes stand on a former garage site a short drive from a similar Rollalong development of three new modular homes at Barton Gardens in Sherborne.
The development will be called St Aldhelm’s Place after St Aldhelm, the first Bishop of Sherborne, for whom an abbey was founded by King Ine in the eighth century.
Delivery of these new homes supports the local economy by employing local people and using local suppliers.
Environmental and biodiversity features include nesting habitats and habitat creation, one bird and bat box for every two homes, two bee and bug bricks for every home, hedgehog holes at the base of garden fences, and a wildflower meadow sown along the boundary with the allotments.
As world leaders meet in Glasgow to formulate a plan to tackle climate change at COP26, our Managing Director Steve Chivers says offsite construction should be seen as part of the solution to the problem.
3rd November 2021
It’s clear now that we are approaching the point of no return when it comes to reversing the damaging effects of our CO2 emissions on our environment.
The construction industry has to step up and play its part. According to the Technology Strategy Board the construction, operation and maintenance of the built environment accounts for 45% of total UK carbon emissions (27% from domestic buildings and 18% from non-domestic buildings).
To reduce this negative impact we have to find new, greener ways of constructing buildings, and we have to design buildings with a low or zero carbon footprint. This means adapting from the bricks and mortar, ground up approach which the industry has adhered to for centuries and adopting modern methods of construction (MMC) instead.
Rollalong adopts three key steps to deliver clients’ key targets in relation to sustainability. Where clients set building design aims to exceed current zero carbon building standards, the following areas are considered:
Firstly, the fabric-first approach with all our buildings: the highly insulated walls, floors, roof, the high-performance windows and doors, and the air tightness of the building fabric mean that all Rollalong buildings exceed current Building Regulations as standard.
Next is energy efficiency: the use of mechanical ventilation heat recovery systems (MVHR), waste water heat recovery systems (WWHR), LED lighting and efficient water fittings further lower emissions in all our buildings.
We then introduce renewable energy technologies: we start by replacing the fossil fuel gas boiler with highly efficient air source heat pumps to provide space heating and hot water. Heat pumps require just a third of the energy of conventional heating systems, and they use use electricity to compress the energy in the outside air to warm our buildings.
Finally, our buildings can be fitted with solar photovoltaic (PV) panels to generate their own electricity to offset energy use to Net Zero Carbon targets and beyond.
The embodied carbon in modular buildings is lower than that of traditionally constructed schemes. Rollalong is targeting a 75% reduction in the whole-life carbon emissions of its buildings by 2030.
Because buildings created in a factory setting are manufactured to precise requirements, MMC can reduce waste on site by up to 90% compared to traditional construction, and much of this waste can then be recycled rather than sent to landfill. At Rollalong at least 95% of our waste is recycled.
Our building projects also have a smaller impact on the local environment on site. Using MMC, buildings are manufactured in highly controlled conditions in a factory. Offsite methods generate significantly less noise and less dust on site.
Modular construction also reduces vehicle movements to and from the construction site, so the toxic fumes and carbon emissions are reduced too. A building site using offsite modular methods reduces vehicle movements to and from the site by up to 90%, so heavy traffic created by large, dirty trucks can be avoided, and disruption to local residents is kept to a minimum.
What’s more, it’s considerably faster to build a modular building than it is to build from the ground up using bricks and mortar – up to 50% faster. As our buildings take less time to manufacture and install, we use less energy.
We are watching COP26 with interest and we look forward to further announcements of UK Government support for MMC as a construction method which can help the UK to achieve its Net Zero target by 2050.
22nd October 2021
We’ve put together a video using drone footage which captures the journey our modular homes took from our factory near Bournemouth to Sherborne 40 miles away.
The factory-built, energy-efficient, low-carbon, affordable homes were built offsite and are now being installed in Barton Gardens in Sherborne, Dorset.
“We are extremely proud of our regional delivery model which could be rolled out throughout the UK to help solve the housing crisis,” said Steve Chivers, Managing Director of Rollalong.
“Local communities built by local people, using local manufacturers for local people – we are creating systemic change in our transition toward a circular economy in the South West.”
The homes in Barton Gardens were designed in collaboration with our client Magna Housing to ensure a product-led mindset, championing high quality, energy efficiency, design flexibility and consumer choice.
“The support given by Homes England to the MMC sector has certainly had a significant impact on the uptake of this construction method, and this has helped modern methods of construction to gain traction in the development of social and affordable housing across the country,” Steve added.
The Offsite Construction of New Homes (NH2) framework from the South West Procurement Alliance (SWPA) was the procurement route for this project. Director Mary Bennell said: “These homes are extremely important to the region and we are glad to be able to see them be delivered. We look forward to watching this project progress.”