TALO Appoints Construction Industry Leader as Technical Director for Ultra-low Energy Housing
TALO, the timber offsite housing specialist, has announced the appointment of Ant Allen CEng MIStructE as Technical Director.
With a 40-year career in construction and specialist expertise in MMC, structural engineering and structural warranty certification, Ant brings a unique combination of technical rigour and industry insight to the TALO leadership team.
A chartered structural engineer, he has been a member of the Engineering Council and Institution of Structural Engineers for over 30 years. His experience spans new build housing, refurbishment, commercial and leisure developments, and around two decades specialising in MMC.
He has worked across both the public and private sectors, as a lead structural designer for social housing and award-winning architecture, and on forensic interrogation on behalf of major building insurers.
Most recently, Ant played a pivotal role at ICW Group, the UK’s third-largest structural warranty provider, where he led the development of ICW’s MMC accreditation process. He managed a team of warranty surveyors overseeing residential and commercial developments – including housing projects of 300+ units – and worked closely with underwriters to certify MMC systems.
At TALO, Ant will be involved in commercial operations and will provide technical leadership to support developer clients and their design teams from the earliest stage of a project through to completion. His expertise in structural design will play a central role in ensuring every housebuilding project benefits from a fully integrated and engineered TALO solution, including its new ICW-accredited foundation system and offsite-manufactured timber superstructures.
Bengt Magnussen, Executive Director of TALO:
“We are delighted to welcome Ant to the TALO team. His long track record in UK construction speaks for itself – from structural design and warranty approvals to forensic interrogation and MMC innovation. Ant understands how buildings work from the ground up and shares our passion for delivering better homes through intelligent, high quality offsite solutions.
His technical leadership will be invaluable in supporting our clients and helping us to bring forward a new era of high-performance, low energy housing in the UK and our wider aim of eradicating fuel poverty.”
Ant Allen, Technical Director at TALO:
“I have worked with many MMC systems over the years and visited the TALO offsite manufacturing centre as part of their ICW accreditation process. This is the best closed panel solution I have seen for low rise housing. TALO has a trailblazing approach that combines superior quality, thermal efficiency and consistency of manufacture from start to finish. The management team has a refreshing, open-minded approach and an impressive drive to raise standards for low-rise housing through innovation.
TALO’s system exceeds Passivhaus energy standards as standard and their package now includes an ICW-accredited foundation system – a complete solution for clients that brings significant cost and time savings, particularly for brownfield sites.
This is an outstanding advanced timber superstructure system, and I am looking forward to helping TALO to scale its impact and bring these innovations to even more housebuilding clients.”
TALO’s advanced timber offsite superstructure system is manufactured using slow-grown, dry Nordic timber for superior quality. Delivered to site as a fully insulated, triple-glazed, closed panel system, it ensures new homes are watertight in days and benefit from exceptional performance for airtightness and thermal efficiency – without a cost premium.
TALO partners with residential developers, housebuilders, social housing providers and architects to deliver low rise housing that radically exceeds UK Building Regulations and the new Future Homes Standard. Applications include homes for market sale, private rent, shared ownership and affordable housing.
For more information about TALO's timber offsite solutions for housebuilders and developers, email hello@talo.co.uk.