Huf Haus: Houses that deliver
Once a blot on the landscape, today’s prefabs are setting new standards for style and sustainability, says Max Davidson
If you were driving past a field in Kent or Surrey and saw a team of builders erecting a prefab house, fitting together the various components like an IKEA coffee table, alarm bells would probably start to ring. Are things really that bad?
The prefab might have been right for the Fifties. Then there was a chronic shortage of houses and not enough money to build them. Those cheap-and-cheerful prefabs, most of them little more than glorified huts, put roofs over millions of heads.
Yet they were not built to last. The British prefab became a byword for cheap construction, not to mention being a blot on the landscape. Never again.
But were we too quick to consign the prefab to history? Cash is still tight, we still have a housing shortage, and the British housing “deficit” runs to an estimated 80,000 homes a year.
However, bricks and mortar are only part of the solution. There is now a new generation of prefabs coming to the rescue. And if they tend to go by another name – the current euphemism of choice is “modular homes” – the principle is the same. You buy the land and your house arrives on the back of a lorry. Or several lorries, if it is a big home.
With prices starting at £20,000, state-of-the-art designs and architectural features geared to the green generation, it is perhaps not surprising that the prefab should be making a comeback. It has even been given the thumbs-up in a new report commissioned by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
“Many major mortgage providers are already willing to lend against these structures, which has been a problem in the past,” says Chris Goodier of Loughborough University, one of the co-authors of the report.
“This means that first-time buyers could find them a practical way of getting on to the property ladder,” he adds.
There are good and bad prefabs, as with everything, but it is striking how big the market has become. There is everything from igloo-shaped pods to space-age cubes and structures that resemble ordinary houses but come in kit form.
The Europeans, notably the Germans and the Scandinavians, spotted the possibilities in prefabs long before we did. But savvy British companies, such as the London-based company Eco Space Studios, have gone from strength to strength in the past 10 years. It is also getting in on the act by accenting affordability and environmental sustainability.
Yet the Rolls-Royce of prefabs is still the iconic Huf Haus, post-and-beam homes that arrive in kit form and are then assembled on site by a crack team of builders from Germany.
The Huf Haus family firm has been in business since before the First World War. It celebrates its centenary next year and if there was a time when its boldly modernist homes, all glass and straight lines, were beginning to look a bit dated, the company has entered the 21st century with a bang, producing homes that perfectly capture the zeitgeist, as they say in Frankfurt.
A key part of that zeitgeist, says Peter Huf, the chief architect at the company’s British headquarters in Surrey, is environmental sustainability. “Every Huf Haus is now triple-glazed, fully insulated and uses renewable energy sources, such as air-sourced heat pumps,” he says. “Fossil fuels belong to the past.”
The first Huf Haus in Britain arrived in 1997 and there are now 170 dotted around the country. The homes are individually designed and prices start from about £500,000, which does not include the cost of land. At the top of the range, in the nature of a bespoke service, the sky is the limit.
The company’s latest satisfied Huf Haus customer is Tony Harrison, a retired agriculturalist. He is the proud owner of a new three-storey home in the Isle of Bute, in the Firth of Clyde. Tony and his wife, Beryl, had always lived in period properties but wanted to change tack completely in their seventies.
Getting planning permission for their new home, which is situated near the Grade I listed Balmory Hall, was a titanic enterprise. It had to go all the way to the Scottish Executive, but the Harrisons could not be happier with the finished product. They have installed all the features they wanted. There is a sauna, a mini-gym, a carport-cum-study and a master bedroom with views across the River Clyde. But they have also reaped the benefits of the latest Huf Haus technology, making use of sustainable energy.
A sophisticated ground-sourced heating system keeps the house warm even in the depths of winter, while solar panels not only provide the Harrisons with electricity but also supplement their pensions.
“We paid £32,000 to install the panels but, thanks to new legislation, are able to sell the surplus electricity we produce to the national grid,” says Tony. “We have calculated that we will get a nine per cent inflation-proof return on our capital outlay.”
Tony and his wife feel as if they are riding the crest of a property wave and it is easy to see why. Buy one of these futuristic houses and you are embarking on an adventure that is so different from conventional house-hunting that it must be like appearing in a sci-fi movie.
Long hours are spent with the architect agreeing the exact specifications. A visit to Germany, if not several visits, is de rigueur, to inspect the work in progress. Then the big day dawns and you wait in an empty field for your house to appear. It emerges flatpack on a convoy of lorries, along with a team of über-fit builders called Hans or Friedrich.
No sitting around swilling tea and moaning about the weather for these Teutonic supermen. However sophisticated the design of the house, Hans and Friedrich will have it watertight within a week, working around the clock if necessary. They will then devote a further 10 or 11 weeks to finishing the interior, down to the last tap. It is a highly efficient process, but the efficiency, for Peter Huf, is secondary to the aesthetics. “People today are probably more aware of the importance of light than they have ever been,” he says. “They don’t want to live cooped up in dark houses.”
Isn’t there something about the uncompromising modernity of the Huf Haus that offends British conservatism in matters of taste? After all, we are notorious for our Nimbyism, not to mention our fetishistic attachment to Georgian architecture.
“You couldn’t be more wrong,” says Huf. “Obviously, in some areas, such as the Cotswolds, you might have an uphill battle to get planning permission. But planners generally are surprisingly enthusiastic about the Huf Haus. They love the craftsmanship that has gone into individual homes.”
In Dulwich village in south-east London, a conservation area, a cluster of nine Huf Haus properties has recently been completed. “We look as if we are doing something terribly modern, but many of our building techniques are very traditional,” says Huf. “Our post-and-beam designs have a lot in common with the kind of Tudor and neo-Tudor buildings that you see all over Britain.”
A Huf Haus would not suit everyone, but the success of the German company, is testimony that buying a prefab home does not have to be a last resort, born out of financial desperation. It can offer stylish, environmentally friendly living.
Excellence in parts
Interested in buying a prefab house? Here are 10 things you should bear in mind.
1 If you are a young person struggling to get on the housing ladder, an affordable prefab may be an option.
2 Some mortgage-lenders are wary of prefabs, so brace yourself for red tape in that department.
3 Cash flow can be another major problem. The company selling you the prefab may expect sizeable upfront payments months before the house is habitable.
4 Planning authorities can also drag their heels. You will need to convince them that your prefab will blend into its surroundings.
5 Some prefabs are very cheap, as little as £20,000 in some instances.
6 Track down a few owners of existing prefabs and talk through the pros and cons.
7 There will never be a better time to do your bit for your planet. Go for environmental sustainability.
8 Don’t buy a plot of land with a view to putting a prefab on it without first covering all the angles, such as planning permission.
9 When your house is being delivered and erected, make sure you are on site, not miles away. The best overseer of building quality is the owner.
10 Enjoy the novelty of what you are doing. Your friends will be envious of your pioneering spirit.
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