On behalf of NaCSBA, I’m pleased to announce further information about ‘Digitising Custom Build’ – a new project set to develop digital methods and tools that will help custom builders better manage the planning and design, customisation and sales, on-site construction and handover stages of new custom build homes.
NaCSBA is working on the project with a number of key industry partners: online participation software provider Stickyworld; HTA Design; Axis Design Architects; Facit Homes; Commusoft; and Slider Studio.
The project has come to life after securing a grant of £330,000 from Innovate UK. Its aim is to create an excellent customer journey which helps inform homebuyer choice and supports their continued involvement throughout the process. A cloud-based customer engagement platform has been developed to create a new interface between home buyers, custom builders and the supply side. We hope that Digitising Custom Build will assist not only the building of homes on individual plots, but also large-scale developments too.
NaCSBA will support the project dissemination with a series of events and access to test the tools and help shape final project outputs. Other organisations involved in the venture also hold key positions: SliderStudio is building computer-aided design tools to help architects generate design menus; Axis Design Architects is testing the home user guide, incorporating an “Internet of Things” approach to energy efficiency; and Facit Homes is improving training material for the site phase of custom build.
The new software tools will be put to the test in later phases of a 54-home custom build scheme by Carillion igloo at Heartlands in Pool, Cornwall. Here, the Digitising Custom Build team is working with architect HTA and housebuilder Potton Homes, one of six home manufacturer teams involved in the scheme. There will also be further trials conducted at additional sites run by Facit Homes.
See Digitising Custom Build in Research and Development to keep up to date with how the project takes shape
