BRIQS likes to raise the flag for ‘comfyOWNhome’! A new concept home with as many building blocks as a well-stocked box of LEGO. With those you compile your new home. With an example like this in the building industry of the Netherlands, we can no longer avoid industrial customization. The benefits are obvious. My advice: from now on, never settle for anything less.
The credit for ‘comfyOWNhome’ is due to the TBI WOONlab. TBI stands for Technology Building and Infrastructure and is a company network. Three TBI companies, ERA Contour, Hazenberg Construction and Koopmans Bouwgroep, jointly develop new concepts, products and processes. With their designs they are leading the growing market for concept homes. Let me explain my enthusiasm for the way they work.
What the (end-)user wants, is being built
The TBI companies start at the only right beginning: the personal needs of housing consumers, the people who will actually use the houses. As a housing consumer or user you are the co-producer. ERA Contour has a lot of experience with interviewing users. At first they interviewed them mainly about concrete construction projects but now also about the development of new concepts. What do these housing consumers actually (do not) want?
- They do not want to wait two years for their new home. Therefore, a ‘comfyOWNhome’ is ready in three months;
- The property must be affordable. Using standard and tested elements that can be repeated in different combinations, keeps prices down;
- They want to fulfill their unique housing needs. With over 10,000 possible variations you really build your own home.
Jeroen Heijdra, director of the joint TBI WOONlab, says it like this in the journal Building Business: “We do not build standard homes, but build from the standard.” He also repeated that in our interview a few weeks later.
Only this kind of industrial customization, where the base building and fit-out are separated in their lifetime, has the future. Building partners that approach each building as a separate project and do not learn to work systematically will not survive in this shrinking market.
Industrial customization according to Japanese example
In Japan they have realized that for some time. There is a legal distinction between the common public part of a building (the base building) and the fit-out for each home that residents take care of themselves. This law of 2008 to promote sustainability assumes a two hundred year life cycle for the base building. In this way, long-term management is more profitable than demolition and rebuilding. A long-term investment is more worthwhile when the building is solid and more durable.
Residents independently provide for the fit-out. Several large and small companies have specialized in designing and delivering a ready-made fit-out. The largest Japanese fit-out contractor can supply 50,000 homes per year. In their factory you are invited to walk through the home you ordered before you buy it. Within a few weeks your fit-out is home delivered and installed by the manufacturer. And a subsequent modification years later is only a phone call or internet order away.
What ERA Contour and partners applies with ‘comfyOWNhome’ in new buildings is therefore also perfectly possible in existing buildings. An important condition for this is that the base building and the fit-out are or can easily be separated. Most fix up homes or office-to-housing projects already work like that.
Take the next step and share your experiences
Do you want to take a next step? Come to the FREE* Masterclass. We will work with practical tools to instantly implement the actions of my ebook in your organizational, fiscal or financial projects and organization.
Join the conversation
Do you know how to build that new way and what you need? Do you like to have have the personal experience with industrial customization or are you wondering what it brings to you? Share it in the comments below.
To your health and wellbeing,
Remko Zuidema
[remko_author]
This post is also available in: Nederlands
