News / Press
Prestige Homes - Off-Site to Off-Plan in just Eight Weeks
14 May 2007
Land and property development group Capricorn Homes has benefited from a new partnership between Kingspan Off-Site and building designer Mikano, which enabled Capricorn to start selling homes off-plan much sooner than expected.
Capricorn was confident it could sell the high spec homes on the exclusive Woodside Park development in Leeds well before they were completed. However, the absence of a show-home and understandable reluctance to rely on a portakabin-style box to showcase the riverside dwellings, led Capricorn to an alternative, innovative and cost-effective solution.
Manchester based Mikano specialises in bespoke, design-led buildings which are engineered extremely rapidly using modular off-site technology based on steel framing solutions. In conjunction with Kingspan Off-Site, Mikano designed and manufactured a unique, stylish marketing suite to complement the prestige development, which could be re-sited at 5 or 6 further locations. From brief, through design, engineering and manufacture, to delivery and completion of the suite took just 8 weeks – ensuring that Capricorn could begin selling homes and recouping its investment in the shortest possible timescale.
The steel frame of the unit was manufactured from Kingspan cold rolled channels, which form the basis of the Kingframe Architectural Facade System. Kingspan Sheathing Board and Kingspan Kooltherm K15 Rainscreen Board are integral to all the elevations, and hidden lifting eyes are located in the corner legs for ease of siting and relocation. Trespa panels and western red cedar planking were fitted to brackets manufactured into the Kingframe through-wall façade. This versatile cladding method allows the exterior to be easily changed for an alternative finish as future locations dictate.
Roger Lidster, Managing Director of Capricorn Homes, commented: “Capricorn properties are constructed to a very high specification in desirable locations. A Portakabin is entirely inappropriate to market such homes, but in the case of Woodside Park we were months from having a showhome available. The Mikano/Kingspan solution was absolutely ideal: a high quality, design-led structure, produced to our brief in just weeks and with minimal impact on the site itself.
“We are particularly impressed with the sustainability and durability of the building. We can relocate the unit several times over and, if necessary, change the exterior or interior finishes with the minimum of effort. This represents real value for money.”
