Why ‘methods’ is the operative word in modern methods of construction

Modern methods of construction (MMC) does not have the best reputation. The front cover of Offsite magazine alone is usually enough to make you want to give up being an architect. 

FAB house on the factory floor

MMC can deliver lower waste, higher performing, more sustainable buildings with fewer defects and lower running costs, but it is often associated with characterless, nondescript modular prisons, hospitals and schools. But that is as unfair to the concept of MMC as the depressing outputs of mass house builders is to traditional construction. Neither approach is inherently bad.

So how do we harness its potential? 

We consider MMC more of a ‘how’ than a ‘what’: The operative word is Methods. 

It is about design being process-driven. Design that considers how the proposal is put together, as much as how it is used when it is built. 

If you think of MMC you might immediately think of volumetric modular: factory built boxes that are put together like lego on site. This form of MMC - Category 1 - is at one end of the spectrum. There are 6 more Categories that capture different definitions along the spectrum. The thread of ‘how’ we build runs through them all.

We designed FAB house with George Clarke for Urban Splash, making us one of a handful of architects to have built Category 1 volumetric modular housing. Our experience was a good case study in the ‘how’. The process with the factory was captivating. To be feasible, the design needed to properly consider the ‘how’: how does it get assembled in a way that works in the factory, how does it get transported, how does it get assembled on site. It opened our eyes to the benefit of deep collaboration, and teams of specialists designing together. 

The factory based designers set the parameters of what is possible and efficient to manufacture on a factory line, and in transportation. We responded to that as we developed the concept. The design was process-led and collaborative. The end result is a shared, richer design that explored architectural possibilities presented by the ‘how’ that we found through collaboration.

Different categories of MMC have different levels of flexibility in the ‘how’: panellised systems are less constrained than modular, for example. Some systems are off-site and others are on-site. There is great flexibility in what MMC can be, but it always requires a different way of thinking about the ‘how’. Since then we have consciously engaged with MMC away from its conventional definition, and what innovations thinking about the ‘how’ can offer.

Specialism and collaboration are founding beliefs of New-works. The AJ ran a Building Study on FAB house and picked up on this emerging belief: 'it was the human, collaborative nature of the process –working directly with the fabricators – that was one of the most rewarding aspects of the process.’  ‘It was a bit like walking into the future’.

Tom Lewith, New-works Founding Director