Our world is in the depths of a housing crisis
From developing countries to leading economies the lack of
quality affordable housing worldwide has reached critical levels
We're simply not building homes at the scale speed and
quality that is needed.
While there is no simple solution
and with many complications making rapid progress difficult
the construction sector is now stepping up to the challenge.
With the adoption of MMC modern methods of construction, we can take away a lot
of the the problematic costly areas that exist
within development and that will ultimately drive cost down
for building but performance up.
This is how we can build more homes faster
Despite millions of us striving to own our own home
the goal is quickly drifting further out of reach for many
In the united states nearly two-thirds of renters say they can't afford to buy
a home and with house prices rising twice as
fast as wages it could be some time before their
fortunes change.
It's a similar situation in the UK where
home ownership is becoming a distant dream for much of the country's younger
population.
Millions are living in unaffordable
unsuitable homes while a lack of high quality social
housing is pushing more people into poverty and
in extreme cases homelessness.
While inflated house prices caused by
low interest rates rising population and ineffective
government policies are partly to blame a shortage of housing
supply is the key issue.
Affordable homes are
not being built fast enough to meet demand
and the uk government's pledge to build 300 000 homes each year by 2025
is ambitious.
The delays are caused by a lack of suitable development sites
low productivity and construction heavy reliance on outdated building methods
and a lack of skilled workers entering the industry.
The rise of technology and modern methods of construction
such as off-site manufacturing could hold the answer.
This is where elements of a building or even entire structures are prefabricated
away from site in factory conditions before being
delivered to their site locations and assembled.
Economies of scale can be achieved through automated production lines
productivity can be significantly increased and
quality can be improved.
The approach also reduces the amount of time that a
product is on site for helping to lower costs negate
site-specific challenges and minimize disruption catering for
what is currently a shrinking workforce.
While off-site manufacturing has been present in part of the construction
sector for decades the unique challenges of today are now
catalyzing its adoption.
Almost half of all new houses in Sweden
which has a long history of timber construction
are now produced off-site.
In a country where temperatures can drop
below -20 degrees celsius making the ground impenetrable for
building pre-fabrication has become a crucial part of delivering new homes.
In some areas new buildings are required to be built using
off-site timber manufacturing by law.
In Japan the country's off-site house building sector produces
more homes each year than the UK's entire housing market.
The Japanese approach has resulted in homes setting new standards for
durability and customisation.
The country is home to Sacuzi House
widely considered to be one of the world's leading house builders
and a modular housing pioneer with an expanding global reach.
Despite ongoing challenges off-site manufacturing
is also on the rise in the UK. Several firms are now scaling up
long-established factories and many new businesses are obtaining investment.
The result is a marked increase in the number of schemes manufactured away from
their sites undertaken by long-established builders
and newcomers alike.
One of those newcomers is project Etopia founded in 2015 the Cambridge based firm
specialises in modular homes that combine energy efficient
affordable passive design with renewable energy generation
and intelligent systems.
Project Etopia I've identified a route to market for
the built environment by combining energy construction and intelligent
technologies to effectively build an off-the-shelf
technological housing system that will provide a more sustainable,
economic and environmental approach to building.
Speed is another of the system's strengths with the construction of an average
house typically taking just four weeks to complete.
With its own 46,000 square meter manufacturing facility
in Ellsmere Port Cheshire which it claims is capable of producing 2,000
homes each year the company is now midway through its
first full-scale residential scheme a development of 47 modular eco homes
in the commuter town of Corby in Northamptonshire
So Corby was identified as one of the key eco-development
plots it's a part of the vision for 2050
underbased the government body and it was to identify what can be built can we
build 2050 today and we've come we've delivered that as a
developer and so we're building the future today we're building 2050.
We are trying to utilise existing skills and make it scalable and accessible to
not only national and big developers but also
smaller local councils and districts to really maximise the output enabling
us to tackle the housing crisis.
We have lots of house building going
around that locations at in Corby and this is one of those I
think which will help us realise that ambition of doubling our population.
We want energy-efficient homes we want people to
have lower bills we want people to be able to
to live in an environment which encourages healthy living
and I think these types of developments do all of that.
While technology can be found throughout its finished homes Project Etopia has also embraced
technology to optimise construction processes,
save time and manage projects.
A lot of the focus whether you're
working with these policy makers or you're working with with global
accreditation is digitalisation it's you know
how do we make processes more digital by working with Procore we were able to
create a synonymous smooth development process
and so we now know that we can track it anywhere in the world, it's like an
operating system for development and construction they
have the ability for us to plug in some of our unique methods into it and
most importantly track and create procedure around these
deliverables it's that operating system that Procore offers allow us to
to harmoniously deliver on site.
Project Etopia's system and the others
like it could also help with other more urgent
housing crises around the world.
In late 2019 Etopia built a
high-performance modular home in Namibia highlighting how modern methods of
construction could provide a workable alternative to shantytowns in Africa.
When you look at these different places
the standards are building the same pretty much the same products from the
same materials but they always use different protocols
my objective is to develop a system that could get signed off due to its you know
hurricane performance its thermal performance its fire
performance its technological performance
and to design something that when you change the shape and size it will fit
the local aesthetic but realistically will perform the same
everywhere in the world.
With these technologies now finding traction around the world it's clear that
off-site manufacturing could make a significant difference in the housing
crises facing many nations and helped create high quality
affordable homes for the millions that need them
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