Honey, I shrunk the house

Timber frame is coming to the rescue of social housing providers

THEY'RE SMALL and perfectly formed but would anyone really want to make a home in one? That's the question Irwell Valley Housing Association is looking to answer with a daring experiment in the provision of affordable housing.

The organisation is the first housing association in the country to take delivery of a micro-compact home, or m-ch as they are branded. Now, at the time of writing, Irwell Valley is exploring the potential to establish a small, experimental settlement consisting of six of these incredibly compact accommodation modules.

"The m-ch is just one of many solutions to the demand for short stay affordable housing. That lack is especially acute amongst students, young professionals and key workers," a spokesperson for Irwell Valley said.

"We're facing a chronic housing shortage in the UK. Spiralling land costs, changing household demographics and the demand for modern affordable homes that don't compromise on quality of design or increase the impact on our environment requires
imaginative, innovative solutions. The m-ch is certainly an entirely new concept and we will be analysing reaction to the trial village."

Originally devised as student accommodation by architect Richard Horden, of London architectural practice Horden Cherry Lee, they found their first use at the Technical University of Munich back in 2005. Like the Irwell Valley project, the university's O2 Germany sponsored experiment used seven of the m-ch homes to make a small student village.

Commissioned by Dieter Massberg, director of the university's Studentenwerk (student housing authority), the village was initially intended to run for a single term only, with Prof Horden living in the seventh unit alongside six students. However, the microhomes are said to have proved so popular that the students elected to remain living in them for the duration of the academic year.

Since then, the m-ch has been popping up at a variety of exhibitions around Europe. The form made its UK debut at the Festival of Xtreme Building held in Birmingham last year. And it is currently causing something of a stir across the Pond where it is an exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art (Moma).

'Home Dwelling - Fabricating the Modern Dwelling' opened there in July, with an example of the m-ch installed adjacent to the museum where it can be explored until 20 October. It is also making an appearance at the Science Museum, London, until November, as part of its exhibition 'Science of Survival' that looks at design concepts that can help us live in a changing climate.

That's a far cry from a noble experiment to provide short-term affordable housing for key workers, as the Irwell Valley pilot is looking to explore the potential of the m-ch. However, with installed renewable energy systems - such as onboard wind turbines or solar panels - and high levels of insulation, they are designed and built with a minimal environmental footprint in mind. As minimal indeed as the m-ch's physical footprint.

To say they are small is something of an understatement, at a cubic 2.6m even an estate agent might blush to call the m-ch bijou, but the homes were designed to maximise the internal space to best effect and provide a living space that cramps neither wallet nor life style.

Within that 2.6m cube exists the occupant's entire living space - sleeping, working/dining, cooking, toilet and sanitation - the entire basics of home living complete with high tech entertainment and leisure systems such as flatscreen TV and highspeed-broadband connections. Fitting it all in was clearly quite a challenge, but the application of design techniques more commonly associated with the aerospace, automotive or maritime industries provided the answers.

Indeed, Horden, has explained how it was the compact and efficient use of space, with foldaway furnishings and surfaces, as might be found in business class air travel or in high class yachts, that inspired and informed the design of the m-ch. The design was further informed by the classic scale of Japanese teahouses, to live up to the maxim - 'less is more'.

"The layout is divided into distinct zones," Irwell's spokesperson added. "A compact area of wet services houses the shower and the WC, with the kitchen separated by a sliding door. On the central axis is the entrance and kitchen circulation area, which also serves as seating for up to five people around a sunken dining area, with space on an upper lever for a double bed."

Based around a timber frame with aluminium rain cladding, each m-ch is manufactured in Austria and shipped to its location as a complete unit with everything assembled and fitted. Along with the necessary utility points for electricity and water, these tiny homes also have appropriate fittings so that the two-tonne units can be dropped into place by helicopter. A truck and crane, however, will be the more conventional mode of delivery for the homes.

This makes the m-ch relatively mobile and also easily adapted to a variety of locations and settings. Since they sit raised above the ground, there is likewise minimal groundwork preparation needed to site them.

Clearly, it's an experiment so there is an element of risk involved in Ir well Valley's deployment of the m-ch into a compact pilot village - but novelty is a star attraction in itself and if nothing else these compact homes are going to cause quite a stir.

Whether they can play a significant role on providing short term affordable accommodation is open to question - time and the pilot will tell - but nobody obtains an answer unless they dare to pose the question.

Irwell Valley is daring.