Homes England MMC research themes finalised

[edit] Introduction

In March 2021, Homes England, the Government’s housing agency, finalised its research themes for its six-year, 1,800 home Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) Research Commission. A report outlining the study 'Monitoring and measuring research study: impact of MMC on the delivery of homes' has been published.

[edit] Data collection

During the initial phase of the project, research and development partners Atkins and Faithful+Gould completed a body of work to shape the data and collection methodology, start data collection and initiate engagement with industry.

As part of the Government’s objective to improve construction productivity and encourage the uptake of MMC in housing delivery, the research project will see data collected across eight of Homes England’s sites using MMC. This will take place in a staggered approach that reflects the timings of construction programmes on each site. The research team will be focused on making this process as streamlined as possible to ensure a robust, consistent and verifiable dataset at the end of the project.

Monitoring the construction of around 1,800 homes across the country over several years, the study will test the performance of different types of MMC to provide long-term, in-depth and verifiable data so that informed decisions about emerging construction technologies can be made.

[edit] The potential of MMC

Covering a range of offsite and modular building techniques, MMC is believed to have the potential to be significantly more productive than traditional building methods. This could allow homes to be built more quickly, addressing labour and skills shortages and improving the quality, consistency and energy efficiency of newly built homes.

The research will explore a range of themes, including cost and pace of build, safety, snagging and defects, construction wastage, logistics and energy efficiency. It will also seek to learn lessons about how technologies will be deployed and give confidence to the industry to drive a greater uptake of MMC technologies.

The sites and technologies include:

Working with the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and University College London, Atkins and Faithful+Gould will collect and monitor data from the developers during a six-year programme and produce annual updates on the research findings before a final report is published at the end of the build programme.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Advanced construction technology.
• Building Research Establishment BRE.
• Construction innovation.
• Homes England.
• Modern methods of construction.
• Off-site prefabrication of buildings: A guide to connection choices.

[edit] External resources

• Gov.uk, The impact of MMC use on home building delivery phases.