We Build Eco sees growth in people wanting to build eco the easy way

This article was originally published in issue 49 of Passive House Plus magazine. Want immediate access to all back issues and exclusive extra content? Click here to subscribe for as little as €15, or click here to receive the next issue free of charge

We Build Eco is a joint-venture partnership between timber frame manufacturer Kithurst Homes, I-beam and wood fibre insulation manufacturer Steico, specialist green building merchant Ecomerchant, and sustainable structural engineers Build Collective, along with additional software developed by Charlie Luxton Design.

Working with an automated cutting list, the elements are cut, labelled and marked, with a 5-axis Hundegger saw interfacing with 3D software and is unerringly accurate to 1.5 mm.

“We now know it’s on track, and the evidence is we have a whole bunch of projects on,” said co-founder Will Kirkman. Kirkman attributes the success in part to Passive House Plus, which featured We Build Eco in issue 42.

“The age-old lesson here, for people like me is, when you’re talking to your accountant about return on investment it’s true that we can’t track advertising but I can say that we get people ringing us up saying they read about us in Passive House Plus magazine,” he said.

We Build Eco’s proposition – to radically simplify timber frame construction with an almost Ikea-like flatpack approach – has drawn clients ranging from self-builders to developers. Prospective builders provide 2D drawings for their proposed project and We Build Eco delivers a complete house to be assembled on-site.