Focus On: The Facit Chassis (part 1)

As the core product of a Facit Home, the Facit Chassis is so much more than a standard timber frame. Carefully developed over a number of years, it not only provides a robust, solid structure and a super-insulated, airtight building envelope, it allows us the sort of creative freedom most home designers dream about.

The key to this lies in our digital manufacturing process. Every Facit Chassis is designed using BIM (Building Information Modelling) software; an intelligent, digital 3D model-based platform with which we have created a huge library of virtual Facit Chassis components.

From load-bearing wall and roof components to internal door portals, they form the main building blocks of our homes. But with every project being unique there is always a need for ‘special’ components, the ones that offer our architects the flexibility required to design each individual home. Be it a specific size/shape window opening or a geometrically complicated junction detail, these specials really help set Facit Homes apart.

From the information about each component found in the 3D model, we employ some technical wizardry to convert the virtual into an exact physical replica. A cutting pattern for the constituent parts that make up each component is generated and then laid out on to a virtual flat sheet.

It’s a little bit like the patterns used for dressmaking and laying them out efficiently is known as ‘nesting’, always ensuring the minimum raw material waste. With this information then passing to our CNC (Computer Numerical Control) cutting machine as digital code, the parts are precision cut from sheets of plywood and assembled by hand into the final component. The result is a perfect recreation of what was designed.

This ‘digital made real’ ability means that we can design all sorts of complex forms safe in the knowledge that the Facit Chassis can accommodate them whilst maintaining the quality and performance we expect from all of our homes.