Absolutely prefabulous: The Huf Haus company is 100 years old but ...
Absolutely prefabulous: The Huf Haus company is 100 years old but ...
Absolutely prefabulous: The Huf Haus company is 100 years old but ...
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<strong>Absolutely</strong> <strong>prefabulous</strong>: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Huf</strong> <strong>Haus</strong> <strong>company</strong> <strong>is</strong> <strong>100</strong> <strong>years</strong> <strong>old</strong> ¿ <strong>but</strong> fans ins<strong>is</strong>t its...<br />
<strong>Absolutely</strong> <strong>prefabulous</strong>: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Huf</strong> <strong>Haus</strong><br />
<strong>company</strong> <strong>is</strong> <strong>100</strong> <strong>years</strong> <strong>old</strong> – <strong>but</strong> fans ins<strong>is</strong>t<br />
its iconic kit home <strong>is</strong> still cutting-edge<br />
By Eve Mcgowan<br />
PUBLISHED:11:10 GMT, 24 July 2012 | UPDATED:11:10 GMT, 24 July 2012<br />
After David and Greta Iredale’s <strong>Huf</strong> <strong>Haus</strong> featured on an early ep<strong>is</strong>ode of Channel 4’s Grand<br />
Designs, the <strong>Huf</strong> <strong>Haus</strong> <strong>company</strong> servers in the UK crashed, such was the level of interest.<br />
Many viewers might have been thinking the programme was showcasing the first of the ubermodern<br />
German prefabs.<br />
But the family-run business that produces the d<strong>is</strong>tinctive homes, using glass and steel, <strong>is</strong><br />
celebrating its <strong>100</strong>th birthday th<strong>is</strong> year.<br />
Claire Shann with her <strong>Huf</strong> House in Bucks<br />
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When it appeared on Grand Designs in 2004, presenter Kevin McCloud described the home as a<br />
‘German spaceship’, <strong>but</strong> he was impressed by the ‘most efficient [building] process’ he’d ever seen<br />
and the ‘beautiful engineering’ of the fin<strong>is</strong>hed product.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Iredales have nothing <strong>but</strong> pra<strong>is</strong>e for their four-bedroom house, built for about £500,000 on a<br />
three-quarter-acre plot in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in 2003.<br />
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-2178095/<strong>Absolutely</strong>-<strong>prefabulous</strong>-<strong>The</strong>-Hu...<br />
26.07.2012
<strong>Absolutely</strong> <strong>prefabulous</strong>: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Huf</strong> <strong>Haus</strong> <strong>company</strong> <strong>is</strong> <strong>100</strong> <strong>years</strong> <strong>old</strong> ¿ <strong>but</strong> fans ins<strong>is</strong>t its...<br />
‘<strong>The</strong>y are so open and there’s so much glass you feel as if you’re living in the garden,’ says Greta,<br />
80, a retired office manager. David, 84, a retired design director, remembers the neighbours<br />
bringing deckchairs to sit on to watch its construction.<br />
<strong>The</strong> house <strong>is</strong> now worth more than £2 million <strong>but</strong> the couple have no plans to sell.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>company</strong> had humble beginnings. Joseph <strong>Huf</strong> employed just 12 people when he opened h<strong>is</strong><br />
carpentry workshop in 1912 in Hartenfels in the Westerwald. It now has a staff of more than 500,<br />
an annual turnover of €80 million (about £63 million) and has built 10,000 homes all over the world.<br />
Franz <strong>Huf</strong> took over the business from h<strong>is</strong> father in 1949, expanding it to build timberframed homes<br />
and commercial buildings.<br />
But it was not until the early Seventies that he collaborated with friend and architect Manfred<br />
Adams to come up with the postand-beam design for the first <strong>Huf</strong> <strong>Haus</strong>.<br />
<strong>The</strong> same framework <strong>is</strong> still used today and negates the need for load-bearing dividing walls, giving<br />
the properties a d<strong>is</strong>tinctive open-plan feel. ‘<strong>The</strong> main difference today <strong>is</strong> the eco-features such as<br />
argon-filled tripleglazing and high levels of insulation, as well as heat pumps and photovoltaic<br />
panels,’ says<br />
Afra Bindewald, of <strong>Huf</strong> <strong>Haus</strong> in the UK.<br />
<strong>The</strong> design of a <strong>Huf</strong> <strong>Haus</strong> makes you feel like you're living in the garden<br />
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>company</strong> <strong>is</strong> now run by Franz <strong>Huf</strong>’s son Georg. <strong>The</strong> <strong>company</strong> deliberately restricts the number<br />
of houses built as the factory can put up only 200 homes a year, with just 20 to 30 of those in the<br />
UK.<br />
‘<strong>The</strong> family feel expansion would comprom<strong>is</strong>e the quality of the product. <strong>The</strong> fact they are limitededition<br />
makes the houses more desirable and exclusive,’ adds Bindewald.<br />
Seen as the Rolls-Royce of kit homes, <strong>Huf</strong> <strong>Haus</strong> prices start at about £500,000, before land costs.<br />
Once they have planning perm<strong>is</strong>sion in place, customers are invited to Germany to choose<br />
everything from the size and layout of the rooms to light switches and bathroom tiles.<br />
Factory production takes four months, after which the flat-pack home <strong>is</strong> shipped to the UK along<br />
with a team of German builders. Assembly of the shell takes a week or less, with the interiors<br />
(including electrics and plumbing) taking a further 12 to 14 weeks.<br />
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-2178095/<strong>Absolutely</strong>-<strong>prefabulous</strong>-<strong>The</strong>-Hu...<br />
26.07.2012
<strong>Absolutely</strong> <strong>prefabulous</strong>: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Huf</strong> <strong>Haus</strong> <strong>company</strong> <strong>is</strong> <strong>100</strong> <strong>years</strong> <strong>old</strong> ¿ <strong>but</strong> fans ins<strong>is</strong>t its...<br />
<strong>Huf</strong> <strong>Haus</strong> Design from the 1960's<br />
<strong>Huf</strong> didn’t start building homes in the UK until 1997, when the first <strong>Huf</strong> <strong>Haus</strong> was put up in<br />
Leamington Spa.<br />
Today, there are nearly 200 in the UK and one of the latest <strong>is</strong> Claire and Ian Shan’s, near High<br />
Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, where they live with their children Laura, 20, and Oliver, 17.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y spent £305,000 on the two-acre plot, knocking down a bungalow to build the fourbedroom<br />
<strong>Huf</strong> <strong>Haus</strong> for a further £500,000.<br />
‘<strong>Huf</strong> are very efficient,’ says Claire, 49, a university admin<strong>is</strong>trator. ‘<strong>The</strong>y t<strong>old</strong> us the first lorry would<br />
arrive at 8.17am and it did.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y stick to the schedule – the shell of the house was up in three-and-a-half days.’<br />
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26.07.2012
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