Living in one of the remoter rural areas of the UK can be challenging, with high housing costs, limited employment opportunities and poor infrastructure all daily facts of life. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated these issues and demands new and radical thinking to enable these communities to become more self-sufficient. The lack of affordable housing is a major contributor to demographic decline and the ability to build new, high-quality, energy-efficient homes within the resources of local economies is fundamental to the future sustainability of small and often isolated settlements.
30 % of Scotland's population live in rural communities
As people leave for urban areas with more amenities + prospects, rural populations decline
Natural resources are undervalued and exported rather than used locally
There is the opportunity to make better uses of these rural resources + labour
Enter: the mobile factory, using local wood to make mass timber panels for rural construction
Consult
Design
Construction
Occupancy
Replication across rural areas caters to the needs of the community
End of Life
Utilising local, renewable resources is fundamental to how we build and sustain rural communities and a new modern method of localised construction is required.The answer: a mobile Dowel Laminated Timber factory - taking offsite manufacture onsite and making a modern, high value construction product locally from timber sourced from nearby forests.