NHBC ROUNDTABLE
PROOF OF PERFORMANCE
Following on from the publication of its guide – ‘Modern Methods of Construction: Building on Experience’ – NHBC held a roundtable session to discuss where offsite methods sit within the housebuilding sector in 2021 alongside the benefits of NHBC Accepts. For example, the Nordic countries have long seen offsite methods as an efficient and environmentally friendly way to build. Swedish provider BoKlok are now here in the UK ‘transposing and transplanting’ technology that is already mature overseas and presenting it to the UK market in a different way.
‘Modern Methods of Construction: Building on Experience’ is a broad review of what has happened across the offsite and ‘non-traditional’ housing arena through a range of different technologies and advancements since the 19th century, including how the help of government support and use of offsite construction has ebbed and flowed. The guide helps to establish some historical context and introduce lessons that can be learned from the past. The offsite sector has often encountered and investigated the same issues repeatedly and is characterised with periods of innovation and enthusiasm before a relative return to ‘normality’ and traditional techniques. “Historically the failures and shortcomings of offsite are often what attracts attention,” said report author and founder of Studio Partington, Richard Partington. “There is an element of experimentation that often falters when its diverges too much from the basic principles of understanding construction. 34
Sometimes the learning doesn’t continue very well across generations.” Over the years, different sectors have found their own route to technological solutions for what they are trying to achieve. There has become a realisation that a home isn’t just a ‘flatpack of superstructure and windows but is a whole system that has to work together.’ Certainly, rapidly changing environmental standards and a generational housing shortage has focused minds at every level of the built environment on how to improve the delivery of new homes. “You have the potential with offsite systems of thinking about the integration of elements that historically have not fitted together that well – ventilation, hot water supply, heating and renewables,” adds Richard. “So there is a real opportunity to get these things thought about in a more integrated way.” The UK has had a chequered history regarding prefabrication. The curious mistrust and lack of uptake is not replicated in the same way elsewhere.
WWW.OFFSITEMAGAZINE.CO.UK | MAY/JUNE 2021
BoKlok has huge experience in developing and manufacturing homes in the Nordic region and has developed around 12,000 homes in Sweden, Finland and Norway. The homebuilding joint venture sees homes built primarily from timber, using a smart, industrialised factory process. “When I talk to my Swedish colleagues,” says Graeme Culliton, BoKlok Managing Director and Country Manager. “They struggle to understand why we have this cultural hang-up about MMC. They don’t have that. Also, we don’t talk to the customer about modular in detail – it’s just not an issue really.” So while the owner of a home may not necessarily need or want to know about its offsite manufacture, when it comes to the thorny issues surrounding warranties, accreditation, valuation and how long an ‘asset’ will last, there is a struggle to embed understanding in what the various offsite technologies offer. The offsite sector is constantly having to prove what it can do – often above and beyond the parameters set for traditional masonry construction. Quality Bar Is there a fundamental lack of understanding or an unconsciousness blocking of the disruptive nature of offsite? The bar of quality and acceptance seems very high. “One of the biggest challenges we have had is gaining accreditation, as the bar is high,” says Nigel Banks, Special
