Raines Court, London
Improving the quality of affordable housing with off-site construction

Client: The Peabody Trust
Location: Stoke Newington, North London

Project Description

Raines Court, London Raines Court is the largest, factory-built, affordable housing scheme in the UK. It is a six-storey mixed-use scheme of 53 shared ownership flats and eight ‘live/work’units (flats which incorporate studio workspace) on the site of a former dairy in north London. The client, Peabody Trust, was keen to use modern construction technology to build affordable homes more quickly, efficiently and cost effectively. In addition, Peabody wanted to take into account recommendations on new ways of working made in the Egan Report.

The Solution

Construction of Raines Court, London Under a PPC2000 contract, Peabody assembled a partnership team including architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, specialists in off-site construction Yorkon, and the Wates Group. Yorkon manufactured and fitted out the modules in a factory environment, while Wates progressed the foundations. Fully-finished modules arrived on site where they were craned and bolted into position in just a few days. A typical two-bedroom apartment used two modules: one with living/dining and kitchen and the other with bedrooms and a generous bathroom. The modules designed for Raines Court included integral balconies and cladding, thus minimising the use of scaffolding on site. Roofs were constructed from profiled, composite sheeting most of which was also assembled at the Yorkon factory. Modular construction carried out under factory-controlled conditions minimises waste, improves working environments on site, reduces the level of accidents and should also result in fewer defects in the completed building.

  • Using prefabricated, steel-framed modules reduced the programme to 50 weeks, a saving of around 40% compared to traditional site-based construction
  • The site was bordered by a railway line, a designated 'red' route and existing housing Prefabrication helped us deal with these constraints by phasing delivery of the modules to minimise disruption and reducing the traffic associated with more traditional construction methods
  • The objective was to build as sustainably as possible, so, for example, all the external timber cladding came from a renewable source
  • Raines Court was the first modular construction project to be awarded an allocation for funding by the Housing Corporation
  • Raines Court is a Housing Forum Demonstration project because of its prefabricated construction and partnering approach
General benefits of off-site construction include:
  • work on site is safer, quieter and cleaner
  • programme times are reduced by up to 50%
  • guaranteed cost and quality
  • reduced maintenance
  • earlier occupation of the building is possible
  • poor weather conditions affect construction less.

The PPC2000 contract provides for open book accounting, incentives, pre-agreed KPIs and benchmarking procedures. The team, including all the consultants, worked in a non-adversarial manner with a high level of delegated decision-making on site. As a result, although we encountered several problems during construction, we were able to maintain a good working relationship within the team and our customer.

Contact The Innovator

John Walsh
John led the project team responsible for the successful delivery of Raines Court.

Wates Group, Wates House,
Station Approach,
Leatherhead Surrey KT22 7SW
Tel: 01372 861000