Why MMC are evolving and surpassing traditional construction
It is becoming more common to listen to great architects around the globe, stating that traditional construction is doomed to disappear. Changes in how we plan and construct cities are inevitably prompted by modern challenges and technological advancements.
It is known for a fact that the Offsite Construction Market experienced a great boom with the Covid-19 pandemic, and it will most certainly continue growing and evolving over the coming 5 to 10 years.
Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) has seen a real step change in response to the challenges of 2021 with the need to find solutions outside of the usual process, with a growing realisation that it can play a significant role in addressing many of the issues currently plaguing the industry. In particular, the adoption of MMC by volume homebuilders has been seen as positive.
MMC feels more viable than ever as a way to deal with the housing issue in the UK (340,000 new homes need to be constructed each year through to 2031 to meet the demand) and to aid the construction industry in "building back better”. Also, there is a real need to accelerate and simplify the architectural process, in order to respond to such demand.
Alongside with the UK housing demand, European leaders in the sector have acknowledged the manpower shortage within construction. Offsite building, being an industrial technique that enables us to "construct without builders," may be the greatest opportunity in this situation, and over time, it may end up being the preferred method of build.
At The Offsite Guide we strongly believe that MMC offers a long-term, effective way to advance sustainability in the industry, both economically and environmentally. However, to be successful, the building process must be changed from one of "why not" to "why now”.
According to the Re-build Britain report entitled MMC: A fit for the future - January 2022, “during periods of lockdown in 2020, there was a downward shift in the production of greenhouse gases as traditional processes were halted. This result, whilst short-lived, provides the proof that with real and incremental change to standard construction practices, the effects of climate change can be limited and possibly even reversed. The green benefits of MMC, in particular modular construction, still need more proof points, but current evidence points towards MMC being at least part of the solution going forward.
Trusted online platforms like The Offsite Guide provide a one-stop resource to meet the need to find, review and compare modular buildings and offsite solutions in this expanding market. At the same time, we aim to encourage builders and developers to break tradition and approach manufactures to ask how MMC can speed up the build process, while optimizing human and physical resources.