The Peabody Trust's latest exercise in modular housing at Barons Place, west London, houses key workers in compact-and-bijou microflats. Martin Spring minds his head and steps inside a new fun-sized way of living. Photographs by Tim Crocker Despite turning much of its considerable energy and resources to upgrading its existing housing stock, the Peabody Trust still finds time to push back the frontiers of prefabricated housebuilding. Just completed near Waterloo Station in central London is the housing trust's third venture into developing flats using prefabricated volumetric modules. Just as in Murray Grove and Raines Dairy in north London, fully finished modules were craned into position in a few hours as efficiently as if they were a stack of freight containers. Even so, Barons Place comes with several twists to the tried-and-tested formula. For a start, the flats are relatively tiny, as they are intended to be rented out for short periods (no longer than a few years at a time) to key workers. Second, the scheme of six flats has been procured as a turnkey, design-and-build package deal. Perhaps most importantly, the system comes in at just pound;1100/m~2, which adds up to two-thirds of normal building costs, bringing it within Housing Corporation cost guidelines.
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