51 BUILDING
INSIGHTS LIVE
Round table chair, editor James Parker
Unlocking MMC & Off site in Residential Developments
M
MC (Modern Methods of Construction), and more specifi cally Df Designing for anufacture and ssembly, have long been hailed as the answer to the housebuilding sector’s ‘triple whammy’ of meeting spiralling housing targets, while achieving building performance and tackling the skills crisis. We brought together leading modular construction specialists, volume housebuilders, consultants, architects and academics, to discuss solutions to one of the industry’s biggest conundrums; why can’t mainstream housebuilding seem to embrace
s well as unforeseen blockers like post-Brexit infl ation, ovid, confl icts, and a housing market slowdown, the industry culture is wedded to ultimate supply chain fl exibility in project decision- making, despite the current model having seen many ‘traditional’ businesses go under in recent years. There have been some key examples of success, particularly large scale, but takeup has been noticeably slow – when engagement with the methods will be essential to deliver the Government’s housebuilding goals including new ndy Burnham’s promise of the “biggest council house building programme since the post-war period.”
It’s impossible to shy away from the reality that a series of high-profi le fi rms have pulled investment following a lack of a pipeline of work to support their factories. But while major players from G, Berkeley and Top at to Ilke omes, aledonian odular and Swan ousing ssociation have retreated from the fray, a few like Vistry present at the
round table are doubling down on their commitments to . t a time when volume housebuilders are reticent to even buy land and build traditionally as sales plummet, is an increasingly de-risked offsite sector looking more viable In order to achieve the Government’s . million new homes target, a large proportion will need to be offsite manufactured, whether ategory volumetric, ategory panelised, or other varieties. But a major shift is still reuired in the industry to embrace production of precision-made homes at scale offsite; although a long-term view would see this as a means to recruit a new generation of professionals.
In order to try and identify solutions, the round table delved into why still only fi gured in around of U homes, and timber remained underused in ngland. Traditional approaches to building houses have been seen as potentially inadeuate in the era of more rigorous performance standards and policing, and with sponsor partners Ibstock Brick and edite Smartply, we explored how to break down the stubborn barriers to adoption.
Sponsors took a key role in the discussion, giving it a practical focus, with edite Smartply for one having recently tackled the problem in a survey of timber frame fi rms on their views around MMC, and accepted the need for more standardisation. We also discovered how architects have embraced – Nigel Ostime of awkinsBrown explained how he was working with IB, on its third iteration of the Overlay to the IB lan of Work; helping to inject design into projects in a systematic way.
owever, fellow architect ory Bergin of T Design noted that “very few architecture schools teach .” We also heard how a few volume housebuilders like Barratt ondon are fully tethering their business model to the approach. nd the Timber oadmap was being “really positively supported” by the industry, in the words of edite Smartply’s oly Ward, who added that seven out of the “top housebuilders” were investing in offsite timber frame. With Vistry continuing to invest in restarting the eicester timber offsite
ROUND TABLE ATTENDEES • Sam Stacey, Director, A7C •
• Rory Bergin, Partner, HTA Design architects
• Andrew Orriss, Interim Chief Executive, Structural Timber Association
•
Stephen Wightman, Director, UK MMC Lead, AtkinsRéalis
• Nigel Ostime , Consultant, Hawkins\Brown architects
• Richard Quarry, Equity Partner, Baker Ruff Hannon LLP
• Jack Brayshaw, Director of Research and Innovation, Vistry
ROUND TABLE SPONSORS • Andrew Shepherd, Managing Director, Ibstock Brick
• Roly Ward, Head of Business Development, Medite Smartply
Tony Woods, Technical Manager - Construction and Sustainability, Procurement for Housing
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