An architect who launched into contemporary micro timber buildings and has won three awards for his designs says the difficult economic climate has meant he is still waiting for his first contract.
Now dwelle director Rick Frankland, whose prototype big “dwelle.ing won The Daily Telegraph British Home Awards Small House of the Year, told TTJ he will sell the home-grown cedar-clad prototype at half its £35-50,000 list price to someone with land to build it and create a permanent reference project, which he hopes will make all the difference.
Mr Frankland has been bombarded with calls from the media and as far afield as Chile and Argentina for his dwelle designs, which use a Masonite Beams I-joist cassette structure made by Wyder Engineered Timber Systems.
“It’s a sign of the times at the moment,” he said. “I’m struggling to sell one because of the recession. I have spoken to an organisation who are interested in 20 of them as workspace for small businesses and another in Scotland which is interested in them as pavilions by boating lakes in a park development.”
But he said banks’ tight-lending criteria for builders and entrepreneurs appears to have stifled some opportunities.
Mr Frankland said the rise in OSB prices meant there was now less difference in cost with higher end panels, so he plans to ditch OSB in favour of wood fibre super breathable Panelvent and Paneline boards. The home-grown cedar cladding will also be dropped in favour of western red cedar because joiners found it hard to machine.
The moveable wood structures, which feature FSC-certified timber, come in four sizes and can be used as a home, holiday house, office or beach hut.
