Here's an idea

Durkan was asked by Clapton Community Housing Association to refurbish more than 100 homes on the Wigan Estate in east London while the tenants were still in residence.

When people are living in their homes while you're still working on them, there are usually all sorts of delays. So our managing director came up with the idea of decanting them to a "respite village" on the estate instead, made up of temporary units. Not only did this eliminate delays, he found it saved two-thirds of the usual cost of moving residents into properties nearby.

There was a waste area at the rear of the estate, where we will be creating a sports ground, so we laid the sub-base for the sports ground and put 16 static units on that.

They're 9.75 x 3 m each and make up eight three-bedroom family homes, with fully fitted kitchens, bathrooms and a phone line so the families don't even have to change their phone number. Two of them were adapted for wheelchair access.

The 19-month contract started in March, and the first family moved in April. They live in the unit for six weeks, we put their furniture into storage, then they move back into their homes, now fully redecorated with new kitchens, bathrooms and heating.

We've had very positive feedback from residents. People like the fact that they can stay within their community, and the children are near their schools. It's also better for us: if we need to talk to tenants about their homes, they're still on the estate.