• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Housing Technology logo

Housing Technology

Housing | IT | Telecoms | Business | Ecology

  • Free Subscription
  • Search Archive
  • Home
  • Research
  • Magazine
  • Events
  • Recruitment
  • Blog
  • On Demand
  • Contact
Home / Magazine Articles / Grand designs for Testway

Grand designs for Testway

Testway Housing in Hampshire has been using computer-aided design software from ArtiCAD to allow its residents to design their own kitchens.

With 6000 properties under management, Testway Housing replaces around 300 kitchens each year as part of their designated 20-year replacement cycle. Chris Scahill, contracts manager in Testway Housing’s asset management team, said, “Prior to using ArtiCAD-Pro, we could only produce black and white drawings from a plan view. Not surprisingly, these could be difficult for our residents to interpret. This resulted in them having to ask lots of questions and often not being entirely clear about the appearance and layout of the finished kitchen.”

Testway wanted to provide better information to its customers, while at the same time being able to give detailed technical information to its contractors. ArtiCAD-Pro was chosen due to the speed with which designs can be produced, combined with high-quality visuals and the provision of technical information for contractors.

Scahill said, “Now we can give residents full-colour 3D pictures, birds-eye views and plans, together with all the detailed technical information needed by our contractors. Since using ArtiCAD-Pro, feedback from customers has been excellent.”

Once a street or estate has been chosen by Testway as the next area for kitchen redevelopment, residents are visited by one of the asset management team to discuss the resident’s requirements. Testway offers its residents a choice of four different units, four different worktops and any colour emulsion. The vinyl flooring comes in a choice of six different colours.

Scahill explained, “We wanted to make sure that our residents had a good selection to choose from, but needed to keep the scope of choice to a reasonable level to make sure that we could still get value for money in terms of bulk ordering and buying.”

Residents receive the ArtiCAD visuals and plans around one week later. Scahill said, “ArtiCAD-Pro produces such clear visuals that it’s much easier for people to see exactly what their new kitchen will look like. If they do want changes, I simply make the changes in ArtiCAD-Pro and send them a revised design. Once approved, the design and the technical specification is sent to Aster Property Management, who then work with our kitchen supplier.”

Looking ahead, Testway has also just started to use ArtiCAD-Pro to design bathrooms which fall within major improvement programmes; this will see around 400 bathrooms being replaced each year. ArtiCAD said that a single ArtiCAD-Pro licence costs £3295, with additional licences costing £1495.

See More On:

  • Vendor: ArtiCAD
  • Housing Association: Testway Housing
  • Topic: Customer Management
  • Publication Date: 012 - November 2009
  • Type: News

Primary Sidebar

Most Recent Articles

  • Free cyber-defence tools from NCSC
  • Learning from history
  • Grand Union Housing gets connected with Aico HomeLink
  • The silences in the system: Predicting and preventing damp and mould
  • Looking back and to the future: Cyberthreats in social housing
  • Hyde signs repairs contract with Totalmobile
  • Fuelling high performance automation
  • Morgan Sindall’s Carbon Zero decarbonisation tool
  • An ethical approach to arrears
  • Housing and the ever-evolving workplace
  • Supporting residents with home safety risks
  • Less innovation & more service design at RHP
  • Ateb Group outsources IT help desks to Central Networks
  • Capital Letters partners with Evo Digital to tackle homelessness
  • Calico appoints M247 for digital transformation
  • 24/7 care requires 24/7 technology
  • Govtech trends for 2023
  • Are you ready for business process automation?
  • Lincoln council moves to the cloud with Civica
  • Why do IT business improvement projects fail?
  • Flagship and Ebrik launch augmented reality app
  • Following the golden thread
  • Setting the standard for carbon-monoxide protection
  • The business case for data
  • Digital twins – When, not if…
  • Using data to build communities
  • The cyber-security jigsaw’s missing piece – Managed detection & response
  • Cyber-security challenges in housing
  • Digitalising retrofits with SHDF & HomeLink
  • Tips for improving care and support

Footer

Housing Technology
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Contact
  • Free Subscription
  • Book an event
  • Blog
  • Search All Articles
  • Research
  • Update Your Subscription
  • Privacy Policy

Welcome to the housing Technology – Trusted Information For Business Professionals in HOusing

Housing Technology is the leading technology information service for the UK housing sector and local governments. We have always believed in the fundamental importance of how the UK’s social housing providers use technology to improve their tenants’ lives.

Subscribe to Housing Technology to gain market-leading research, unsurpassed peer networking opportunities and a greater understanding of your role to transform your business.

Copyright © The Intelligent Business Company 2022 | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy
Housing Technology is published by the The Intelligent Business Company. A company with limited liability. Registered in England No. 4958057 | Vat Registion No. 833 0069 55.

Registered Business Address: Hoppingwood Farm, Robin Hood Way, London, SW20 0AB | Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8336 2293

htc23 pop banner