A factory in Japan was due for closure and demolition as it no longer met the requirements for withstanding an earthquake after rules were changed following the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.
Exploring the MMC toolkit: from offsite construction to PPVC and beyond.MMC is the collective term for the innovative construction methods that can be deployed by the DfMA designer.
MMC can be considered as the DfMA designer’s “toolkit”.The DfMA designer finds the most suitable innovations in the MMC toolkit (or develops new innovations) to meet a project’s unique challenges..There are many construction innovations that can be considered MMC.
The UK’s Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) recently established a Joint Industry Working Group on MMC which proposed the following categorisation: 3D primary structural systems, 2D primary structural systems, Non-system components, Additive Manufacturing, Assemblies and sub-assemblies, Material and Product Innovations and Site Process Innovations.This categorisation is quite diverse and includes a range of pre-manufactured and pre-assembled systems but also non-system components, site-based material innovations and process innovations..
There is no fixed list of MMC methods in each category.
There is great scope for the construction industry to innovate and develop new MMC methods to expand the toolkit and enhance the DfMA designer’s ability to achieve benefits on future construction projects..And whatever else it is today, we know that it may need to be something very different – although we don’t know what – in just a few months’ time..
The opportunity within healthcare design and build is to address all of these competing value drivers successfully.This is the essence of our core approach – design to value.. Our overarching aim is to deliver a beautiful building which achieves excellence in clinical outcomes, patient safety and user experience, savings in cost and carbon, precision in budget and timescales, and flexibility to allow for future developments, planned and not.. A holistic approach to healthcare.
Every project starts with a brief, of course.A clear brief allows for the design to be checked continuously as it evolves.