40 | Sector Focus: Timber in Construction
SUMMARY
■One approach to achieving MMC is by prefabricating building components
■The offsite construction market is predicted to grow 8% from 2022-2027
ADVANCING OFFSITE IN WOOD
Stora Enso sees investment in automated mass timber coating as another key step towards a prefabricated building future,
writes Dr Mila Duncheva, business development manager UK and Ireland
The arguments in favour of moving towards Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) to alleviate acute industry challenges such as stagnating productivity, the housing shortage and mounting waste materials are, by now, quite familiar. One approach to achieving MMC is by prefabricating building components offsite in a factory, resulting in greater speed, higher labour and materials efficiency, economies of scale and tighter quality control (
https://bit.ly/3NRwokg). Those arguments have been made many times by many voices and seem to be having an effect: the offsite construction market is predicted to have a compound annual growth rate of 8% between 2022 and 2027, beating the current UK construction output annual growth rate of 3.9% by more than double. Offsite manufactured components are not only increasing in quantity but also in their level of sophistication, to add even more value in the factory and save even greater resources on building sites. With that in mind, we can ask some more specific questions about the nature of that enhanced prefabricated future and how to get there. For example – what role can automated coating processes for mass timber play in accelerating progress to this future?
Top: Factory-coating protects CLT and saves time on site
Above: MMC in wood has key advantages over building in other materials - from climate, to quiet, clean construction site benefits
TTJ | July/August 2022 |
www.ttjonline.com
First, it is worth reiterating why wood – especially mass timber systems such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) – is the future of prefabricated construction, offering a number of practical benefits as outlined in Arup’s 2019 Rethinking Timber Buildings study (see box), over traditional materials such as steel and concrete. Mass timber is lighter, which makes it easier and faster to work with and requires a small, easy to manage installation workforce.
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