Balancing act
James Luckey
Editor, Concrete at The Concrete Society / Self-Supporting Minister in The Church of England
In its embracing of BIM a few years ago, the Conservative administration saw an opportunity to improve productivity in the construction sector. Increasing the efficiency of the industry through technology, where it had fallen behind other parts of the economy, offered obvious economic benefits.
In the past couple of years, Government has switched its focus to another method that it believes can boost economic performance. Off-site construction was one of the core aspects of the Construction Sector Deal published last year, with the report making the policy statement to “use the presumption in favour of off-site construction by 2019 across suitable capital programmes, where it represents best value for money.”
This policy is one part of the wider aim to produce better, safer and more energy-efficient and sustainable infrastructure, public buildings and homes.
And indeed, the use of off-site manufacturing has proved hugely beneficial in infrastructure and commercial building. Open a copy of this journal over the past few years and there are myriad examples.
But perhaps the potential in housing has been less obvious and one where the benefits of concrete and masonry in particular run the risk of being overlooked as soaring demand for homes means other materials are viewed as faster, cheaper and more efficient solutions to building thousands of houses quickly.
A recent report from market research firm AMA Research adds fuel to this idea, “We are now used to seeing off-site housing in the form of timber frames due to the fact that the use of other off-site technologies for housing is quite limited.” Uninformed or simply myopic developers?
In the long run of course, using specific prescribed methods or materials over others, stymies both the industry and innovation. Choosing only timber or lightweight steel for off-site housing at the expense of concrete and masonry would suggest that matters of resilience to increasing natural disaster, greater fire resistance, heating matters and building performance, are not at the forefront of developers’ minds. A sure-fire road to ruin. Such matters of quick build versus durable build are a balancing act for sure. Clearly the better route is to consider all options and all construction methods and let the location/ application determine the most efficient, long-term sustainable and safe construction of our housing.
Taken from Concrete December 2019. Visit: www.concrete.org.uk / https://bit.ly/2cjmEiM