Francesca Lofiego

Pollard Thomas Edwards is a London based practice of 150 people that specialises in producing residential projects of the highest standard across the UK. At Beechwood West, Swan Housing Association and PTE have created a new neighbourhood in Basildon Essex, of 250 uniquely customisable houses, using modular construction. The biggest challenge for this project was to combine the ability to customise both external and internal features of a house, resulting in over 1 million possible variations. To address this, our BIM approach used a range of software; at the core of the process we used Revit to model the variants using design options, then Excel to organise the options. The sheer number of options resulted in a huge amount of information to be controlled and produced. We therefore integrated automisation technology using Dynamo. The Revit models were used in a more user-friendly format for the end user to visualise and make their choices. Potential buyers can design their new home via an online configurator. They can select their plot, choose preferred house type, number of bedrooms, amend plan arrangement and pick external finishes such as brick type. Residents can even add bays or extensions - each home is unique and every customer is a designer not only of their own home, but also of the street scape. Our seminar will showcase our approach to the technological challenges of balancing customisation and modular design and how this approach transformed the project’s delivery.