This gave an investment profile for each scenario.

There are many different methods of constructing a building.In addition to conventional methods, alternatives have been developed that deploy prefabrication, pre-assembly, design standardisation and/or automation to some degree and these are collectively referred to as Modern Methods of Construction (MMC)..

Exploring the MMC toolkit: from offsite construction to PPVC and beyond.MMC is the collective term for the innovative construction methods that can be deployed by the DfMA designer.MMC can be considered as the DfMA designer’s “toolkit”.

The DfMA designer finds the most suitable innovations in the MMC toolkit (or develops new innovations) to meet a project’s unique challenges..There are many construction innovations that can be considered MMC.

The UK’s Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) recently established a Joint Industry Working Group on MMC which proposed the following categorisation: 3D primary structural systems, 2D primary structural systems, Non-system components, Additive Manufacturing, Assemblies and sub-assemblies, Material and Product Innovations and Site Process Innovations.

This categorisation is quite diverse and includes a range of pre-manufactured and pre-assembled systems but also non-system components, site-based material innovations and process innovations..Technology is not fairy dust that you sprinkle onto a problem to sort it out.

You need to assess the entire process and engage actively with technology to see where – or whether – it will add value.You also have to be open to the very real possibility that its use may fundamentally alter that process for the better.As an industry, we have to get better at creating and sharing data, information and learning.

At the moment, we just don’t do that well enough.We have the computing and processing infrastructure to do amazing things with data in the built environment sector, but we have to create it, share it – and use it.. We’re big believers in open source.