A prefab tradition
The industry remained haunted by the failure of offsite manufacturers.
It was just three months since the liquidation and receivership of eHome was concluded. The Kumeu-based company went bust in 2015 despite its status as the then biggest offsite home manufacturer in the country.
Earthquakes, a leaky building crisis, a decades-long building drought, ongoing building skills shortages, and the stalling of KiwiBuild had all created an environment in which offsite manufacturing should thrive, Edwards believed.
‘‘It’s got to be the answer,’’ he said.
He pointed to Sweden, where more than 80 per cent of new homes were made from prefabricated elements. Offsite manufacturing allowed the country to lift building levels despite months of appalling winter weather, and it showed offsite manufacture could create high-quality homes.
‘‘Sweden proved that 40 years ago,’’ Edwards said.
Fletcher Building chief executive Ross Taylor said that unless New Zealand developed home-making factories, this country would end up importing prefabricated homes from nations which may not share our labour protections. Prefab NZ says New Zealand has a long, and successful, history of housing people in prefabs.
New Zealand’s much-loved historic villas and bungalows were from pattern-books and prefabricated parts, as was the in Waitangi.
The Railways housing scheme began in the 1920s and used a combination of prefabricated components and standardised planning through pattern-books.
Much of the state housing built in the 1930s to 1950s was prefabricated.
So was much of the hydro scheme housing of the 1940s to 1970s.