A New Way of Building: Modular, Circular, and in Wood

28 July 2024

While in the Netherlands I had the opportunity to visit Barli, builders of modular homes. It was very inspiring to see this factory floor efficiently creating highly sustainable and compact housing at an extraordinarily fast rate.

The single factory floor I visited was making 30 completed homes a week!  Barli are building fully fitted-out home from scratch in about a month. A home that would then be delivered on the back of a truck for someone to move into days later.

Not only were these houses built with astonishing speed they are also super sustainable and affordable.  With triple-glazed windows and high-quality insulation they were designed to stay warm with only tiny amounts of cooling.

With a tiny footprint, they provided the perfect opportunity for gentle density and infill.

WA could do with this kind of housing product to contrast against the slow-to-build, inefficient, and unsustainable double brick houses that still dominate most of our new housing.

Barli also have a great company motto too which resonates in Australia: It’s time to build differently. We have a housing crisis. And we have a climate crisis. This requires a new way of building. Modular, circular, and in wood.