Dermot Bannon: 'We Are Doomed if Modular Homes Are Used as Solution to Housing Crisis'

Dermot Bannon: 'We are doomed if modular homes are used as solution to housing crisis'

It’s hard to get hold of Dermot Bannon. On the day we are due to chat, Ireland’s most famous architect has been going non-stop and when I finally get to speak to him over the phone, it’s clear he’s up the walls (pardon the pun). ‘I’m on the side of the road. Don’t worry, I’m in my car, not sitting on a kerb,’ he laughs. Isn’t this the same guy who was going to simplify his life since suffering a pulmonary embolism last summer? ‘Oh yeah, well I h…

Are prefabricated homes a solution to the housing crisis?

The conventional building system has become so expensive. Photo: Tempura. Research tells us that two or three times more prefabricated homes (prefabs) can be produced in the time it takes to construct houses under the conventional system. Theoretically then, part of the solution to quickly address the housing crisis would be prefabs. Gerard de Valence is an expert in prefabricated housing. As an economist he worked for a government inquiry into …