Project Overview

The residents of Maesyffynnon, Linc Cymru’s newest Extra Care home for older people in Aberdare, South Wales, would never guess that their brand-new home is in fact a set of modules that were built in a factory 75 miles away, brought down to site on lorries and bolted onto the structure.

The reason for this? Linc decided that by using a mix of traditional external materials – such as the brickwork, render and cladding – and internal volumetric modular units, the building, while reaping all the benefits of offsite production, would look no different to any of its other Extra Care schemes, all built the traditional way. Going hybrid meant merging together Linc’s engineers and architects with those of the modular manufacturer, to ensure that both the traditional and volumetric designs were fully integrated.

The outcome was exactly what Linc required: a fusion of traditional and volumetric modular, made quickly, safely and sustainably, yet looking permanent and solid. Maesyffynnon was not only the first of Linc’s homes to be built this way but, as far as they know, it is also the first Extra Care home – where older people live independently with targeted support – to be built using hybrid technology in the whole of Wales.