Offsite Solutions, the UK’s leading bathroom pod manufacturer, has won a £2.2m offsite construction contract to provide 422 bathroom pods for The Perfume Factory — a new build-to-rent scheme in North Acton developed by Telford Homes.
Designed by Darling Associates, the development will transform the former Elizabeth Arden site into 374 new homes for rent across three residential towers up to 25 storeys and 1,403sqm of commercial space.
Due for completion in 2024, the scheme will create a new sustainable community in London and substantial improvements to the public realm. The mixed-tenure development will provide affordable housing, homes for shared ownership, and apartments for private rental.
238 of the apartments will be available for rent under the highly successful UNCLE Acton brand. Residents at UNCLE Action, as the project will be known, will benefit from lifestyle amenities and a range of features to ensure the building can be operated as efficiently and sustainably as possible, including air source heat pumps to deliver low carbon heating and hot water.
Offsite Solutions is manufacturing three distinct steel-framed pod types for the Perfume Factory, designed to meet the requirements of each tenure. There will be bathrooms and shower rooms for shared ownership and homes for private rent, and bathrooms for the affordable housing. The pods will manufactured and delivered to site by Spring 2023.
James Phillips, Senior Technical Co-ordinator at Telford Homes, said: “We are looking at increasing the use of offsite manufacturing for larger components. Bathroom fit out typically needs multiple trades. With pods, we work with one single company which simplifies procurement, improves efficiency, and radically reduces management time.”
“Because bathroom pods are pre-designed and manufactured using factory processes, there is significantly less waste compared to on-site fit out — which is more sustainable.”
“Pods just need to be considered at the early design stages to allow installation. From our perspective, the process has gone smoothly so far and visits to the factory allow us to review the bathrooms before delivery to site.”
James Stephens, Managing Director of Offsite Solutions, commented: “As the build-to-rent sector continues to evolve and mature in the UK, we are seeing a significant uplift in enquiries and orders for bathroom pods for mixed tenure build-to-rent projects, such as the Perfume Factory. We expect this demand to continue to increase as more investors look to diversify their portfolios with the creation of sustainable new neighbourhood communities and following successes in student living.”
The bathroom pods for the shared ownership apartments at the Perfume Factory will be fully tiled in stone-effect porcelain, and fitted with a wall hung toilet, semi-recessed wash hand basin set into a solid surface vanity top, bath with overhead shower and hinged bath screen, tiled floor and tiled bath panel.
The bath and shower pods for the private rented apartments will have large format porcelain tiles in a white marble effect design with a contrasting feature tile above the vanity shelf and dark grey floor tiles.
The pods for the affordable homes will have a bath with shower curtain, GRP composite gloss bath panel, floor-mounted toilet, and D-shaped pedestal basin with mirror above. Both the bath and shower rooms will be fully tiled in white to remove the requirement for repainting and with a low maintenance vinyl floor — all pre-fitted in the Offsite Solutions factory.
The benefits of factory-built bathrooms for major residential developments include greater certainty of completion on time and on budget, less time on site, and consistently high quality with advanced production processes and a robust testing regime in the factory. The wet areas to the pod walls and floor are fully tanked for long-term durability, and a composite ceiling panel in a matt paint-effect finish combines low maintenance with an enhanced appearance.
Header image credit Darling Associates/Telford Homes.
