It took just 13 hours for a Wellington company to build a weather-tight home from the foundations in Central Otago.
Flexi House believe their system could be a solution to the housing crisis.
Flexi House in Central Otago, Cromwell. Photo: Flexi House
Founder André Heller tells Jesse Mulligan he set up the company after finding it unaffordable to invest in his dream home.
“I wanted to invest in a high quality good home and not have to renovate it and so I thought well if we could start small and then add to it over time, that would be the perfect solution for us so that sort of kick started it [the idea].”
Using what he had learned from infrastructure design in the UK, Heller says he saw a chance to ease Aotearoa’s housing crisis.
“The only way to scale housing is we have to standardise parts and design in a product mindset … and if we design house by house, and subdivision by subdivision, we won’t get there.
“We have to design a system that allows for flexibility and change and that can morph and adapt to whatever is required.”
That’s why their homes start as one-bedrooms which can be scaled up later, Heller says.
“What we’ve done is we’ve broken down all of the areas of a home into their rooms and then from rooms, we’ve broken them down into panels. So we’ve got floor panels, wall panels and roof panels typically.
“We’ve worked out a way how we can mass produce those panels and arrange them in different formats so we can change and create different typology in homes, to create unique design outcomes for customers. But it allows us to mass manufacture those components.
“You can’t even tell it was built out of panels; all of our joints are completely seamless.
“We’ve actually incorporated a lot of architectural detailing that you wouldn’t get in a traditional build in a normal constructive home in New Zealand … and we’re using a lot of high-quality materials.”
It’s also designed in a way that doesn’t result in construction waste when enlarging the home, he says.
“We can build room by room and add on as customers need and then at end of life, the foundations can be removed and not go to landfill, they can be reused on another project and we don’t have a huge carbon footprint with all the concrete typically associated with construction.”
While they’re not immune to inflated construction costs, they’ve been trying to consider that in their designs, Heller says.
“So we’re not using GIB and that sort of thing so we’ve actually managed to shorten our lean times significantly which has been great and just thinking out side of the box a little bit when it comes to materials definitely helps.”
It is hard to estimate how much the first house they’ve built will cost because they’re still in the process of fitting it out from the inside, he says.
“But it’s a prototype and so being a prototype, costs are always higher.
“We’ve had to invest a lot of money in R and D [research and development] and that sort of thing so those sort of costs can’t be attributed to this build … but we think at scale, we can be competitive within the market.”
Their ambition is to be able to build 1000 houses per annum, with the hopes of branching out and outsourcing construction, he says.
“There’s no reason why we can’t be applying this panelised technology to larger scale developments.
“So, our proof of concept is this one-storey dwelling and we’re going to roll out maybe 10 to 50 of these over the coming year or two or who knows.
“Then we’re going to look at adding product to our portfolio by going to two storeys and then looking at medium density housing and how we can scale that.”
There’s been lots of interest lately, he says, and they’d be keen to hear from investors wanting to support this model.
“We’re not here just to be a business and make money, we’re actually really wanting to help redefine and challenge the way we build houses in New Zealand and create better outcomes for everyone.”
