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KU LEUVEN PRESENTS MEDAL OF HONOUR TO ENGINEER-ENTREPRENEUR
FACULTY NEWS
On the occasion of the Faculty of Engineering Technology’s tenth anniversary, KU Leuven presented an honorary medal on 30 October 2023 to a promising young engineer who is a model for the programme’s profile. The laureate was Filip Timmermans, founder and managing director of Skilpod, an innovative construction company specialized in compact and sustainable homes and apartments.
Filip studied Electromechanical Engineering Technology at Group T Campus in Leuven. In just ten years, he managed to turn the construction world upside down and make his company the market leader in the niche market of modular and flexible housing construction, based on the use of wooden units. Started in a small 300m² workshop, Skilpod now covers an area of more than 10,000m². From two employees, it evolved to thirty-five.
Success factors
Skilpod’s robust growth can be traced to four factors. First, there is Philip’s vision of the housing market that starts from demographics. “The family composition is changing; more people are living alone, and the population is ageing. This means that the demand for smaller homes will continue to rise,” Filip explains. “Moreover, residents are becoming more environmentally conscious and prefer energy-neutral places to live.”
“In addition, the open space still available has to be used sparingly. That is why we developed timber frames that make it possible to build five stories high, thus limiting the number of square metres of floor space. This immediately makes our houses a good deal cheaper.”
The third success factor is Philip’s business model based on cost-efficient production and installation. On that, he says: “Traditional house construction easily takes up to two years and is subject to the vagaries of the weather and uncertainties regarding deliveries and finishing. In contrast, we deliver a custombuilt, move-in ready home in a matter of weeks. Production takes place in our central workshop in Geel. On-site installation and connection take a day at most.”
Skilpod’s fourth asset is its integral service. “We are a multidisciplinary team of engineers, architects, product developers, designers and craftsmen,” Filip confirms. “That means we control the entire process ourselves, including aftersales service.”
Growth market
In recent months, Skilpod has regularly been in the news with record-breaking achievements. In September 2022, the company built ten houses in four days in Lokeren. A year later, it completed a similar job in the historic centre of Tongeren. There, a completely new residential area was built in four days, finished, and decorated with a special historical façade.
From the Geel site, Skilpod can only guarantee optimal and fast service within a 200 km radius. “If we want to grow further, we are obliged to expand our territory and set up foreign production and assembly sites,” says Filip. “In the Netherlands, we have already opened a branch in Eindhoven. Plans for France and Germany are in the pipeline.”
In the Netherlands, Skilpod has not missed its mark. In 2020, Filip built an entire village of one hundred homes brought in by boat on the island of Texel. In spring 2023, Skilpod signed a contract with Aedes, the umbrella association of Dutch housing associations, for the accelerated construction of 28,000 homes over the next three years. “It represents an important step forward in alleviating the social housing shortage,” Filip notes. “Meanwhile, we have expanded the production of housing for one- or two-person households to include classrooms, care homes, childcare centres and holiday homes.”
Service company
As a young entrepreneur and market leader, Filip is already looking beyond. “From a production and construction company, we want to evolve into a service company that offers a total package to the customer: an all-in home, including services and maintenance. In time, we are evolving towards new housing concepts where we do not offer the product ‘house’ but rather the service ‘living’. That includes not only a physical place and a construction but all aspects that make life pleasant and comfortable. Skilpod will set the course for a new era.
Yves Persoons
