Prefabrication experiments - 408 - Kit-of-parts and Standardization

Jaimie Johnston, Head of Global Systems at Bryden Wood and Design Lead for the Construction Innovation Hub, has spoken enthusiastically about the changes taking place within the construction industry, specifically the shift toward offsite construction. The Bryden Wood approach is articulated to the same kit-of-parts strategy deployed for post-war housing crises but described in contemporary terms.  The current Modern Methods of Construction / Platform construction space, suggested by Johnston and his firm influenced the UK Government’s Construction Playbook, whose core policy «harmonize, digitize and rationalize demand» creates new opportunities to apply a consistent set of technical standards to assets being built across a given sector. This «platform» level of standardization has the capability to streamline design and construction, giving the industry a lever to scale supply. 

 

Johnston defines this standardized, foundational approach as a springboard, setting up the prospect of working with more sophisticated industrialized manufacturing methodologies like DfMA. The idea of standardization is important for achieving economies but should not be an obstacle to architectural innovation. Efficient production applied to building must be done the right way including all stakeholders including the creativity that goes along with architectural design. The standard, normalized, terminology associated with past prefab experiments has long challenged offsite uptake to reform construction.  

 

The kit-of-parts or platform DfMA processes do not refer to the end products (traditional or alternative structures), but rather to the design criteria and choices marking-out building needs. As such, the kit-of-parts methodology does not relate to one strategy either modular or panelized but to a symbiotic use of materials and assemblies to facilitate everything from supply chain management to onsite coordination. Each industrialized construction strategy can be looked at as a tool in the overall construction process adapting to projects, sites, and functional requirements, reforming the «silo» nature of the construction ecosystem; Platforms are toolkits for building singular projects from cooperating sources. Whatever vocabulary is used to portray a novel approach to industrialized construction the underlying benefits of standardization are clear: sharing and defining elemental logistics across multiple projects increases efficiencies at every level.

Modular vehicle platform