GDL08: ModCell and The House That Kevin Built

Right at the end of Grand Designs Live, as the exhibition was shutting up shop, I finally got the chance to have a look around the House That Kevin Built (big post to come about that soon!). Whilst I was snapping photos, I got to talk to Finley White from ModCell, whose company put up the bottom half of the house.

The ModCell bits are the ground floor panels you can see either rendered or, on the left-hand wall, glazed to show the straw off. Glazing the panels is not normal practice, but it was nice to be able to see the straw inside in this instance. Essentially, these are wooden frames (sustainably sourced, of course) that have been filled with straw bales and then rendered with a lime render, making them super-insulating and vermin-proof. All this is done in a ‘flying factory’ near to the build site using local materials to reduce the amount of transportation required.

The panels can then be assembled very quickly and easily on-site and as they are already rendered, the structure can be made water-tight very easily. Finlay also explained to me that builders generally dislike having straw bales kicking about as they have to be kept bone dry throughout the build, have a tendency to shed straw which then gets everywhere, and are a bit of a pain in the neck. ModCell, on the other hand, deals with all the straw away from the build, keeping the site tidy. As all the rendering is done in the ‘factory’, you’re also less at the mercy of the weather - joy to any British self-builder’s ears.

I was really impressed with the idea, and it’s a real shame that I didn’t get to talk to ModCell earlier in the week as I would have loved to have done some video with them. They have lots more information on their website, including a load of photos from the Grand Designs build.