Modular house range, six standard types

This catalogue of modular houses runs to six types. The smallest, NORD, is a single module with one bedroom. The largest, THOR, has three bedrooms, a walk in wardrobe, two bathrooms and a 45 m² open plan living room. Every type was modelled in Revit, with floor plans generated from the model and visualisations rendered in Twinmotion. The prototype went further, into finishes schedules and STL data for a physical 3D print of the module.

A standard house type is a product, not a record of something already built, and the title block on the drawings says so plainly. Where the client name belongs there is a placeholder. So is the address, and so is the project number. Nothing is missing. A catalogue house has no plot, because each unit is placed wherever the buyer decides to build it. What the project folder holds instead is six named types, each with its own model, its own drawings and a set of visualisations laid out to the same template.

Each type carries its own Revit model, with a further shared model spanning the whole range. Floor plans with room areas, dimensioned plans, sections, elevations and roof plans are all generated from the models. Visualisation runs from Revit through Datasmith into Twinmotion, where exterior and interior scenes are built per type. Standard profile libraries do not go far enough for a product that will be repeated, so bespoke Revit families were authored for the roof edge trim and for two window sill profiles. Built in joinery was drawn room by room at 1:25, from the wardrobe above the bed to the vanity unit and the breakfast bar. The prototype was carried in two layout variants, one with a separate WC and one with the WC inside the bathroom, each with its own element schedule.

The range covers six types. NORD is a one bedroom single module, its enclosed part 11.0 × 4.0 m with a 1.3 m deep terrace along the front. The two module 2+KK type has an enclosed part of 8.23 × 5.5 m. FIN is a two bedroom layout with two 10 m² bedrooms and a 27 m² living room, enclosed part 9.5 × 7.0 m. THOR, the largest, adds a third bedroom, a walk in wardrobe, a second bathroom and a 45 m² living room with a kitchen area, its enclosed part 13.7 × 9.9 m and the house reaching 17.3 m once the terrace is counted. The pair OLAF and OLAF + 1.5 completes the range. OLAF offers 42 m² of enclosed floor area and 28 m² of covered terrace within an overall footprint of 11.0 × 7.805 m. Every type is single storey under a pitched roof. On OLAF the section puts the eaves at 2.3 m and the ridge at 3.62 m above floor level, with the floor carried on point foundations clear of the ground. Finishes are set out in the schedules as vertical dark oak timber cladding, vertical anthracite metal cladding, horizontal light oak boarding, light oak flooring and dark wood effect tiling inside, and a WPC deck on the terrace. Windows and doors are anthracite, with timber lined reveals.

Project challenges

Floor area is the first thing a buyer compares between catalogue houses, and it is also the easiest number to get wrong. The terrace here is roofed and forms part of the overall footprint, so the same house reads as 42 m², as 70 m² or as 85.8 m² depending on what the figure includes. Without that definition the number tells the reader nothing. The second issue is multiplication. A decision taken once on a one off building is taken six times here, and revisiting it six months later means reworking six models and six drawing sets. That is why a shared model sits above the range, and why time spent on bespoke families pays back, because it keeps one detail identical across every type. The third issue is the edge of the commission. A standard range can be taken as far as models, drawings and schedules, and then it stops at the plot boundary. Site layout, utility connections, energy performance certification and structural assessment all belong to a specific location and a specific design stage, not to a catalogue.

Project outputs

• Revit models for six house types plus a shared model spanning the range
• Floor plans with room areas and dimensioned plans for each type
• Sections, elevations and roof plans for the prototype and for the OLAF + 1.5 variant
• Element schedules in five chapters: wall and floor finishes, windows and doors, bathroom and WC, kitchen, building services
• Built in joinery dimensioned room by room at 1:25
• Two layout variants of the prototype, with a separate WC and with the WC inside the bathroom
• Twinmotion visualisations per type, with 24 stills and one video clip in the final handover
• A 21 page presentation PDF for the OLAF type, with visualisations, plan, finishes and services schedules
• STL data for a physical 3D print of the module
• Bespoke Revit families for the roof edge trim and two window sill profiles
• A separate pilot model prepared as the basis for quantity take off