INFRASTRUCTURE & PROJECTS AUTHORITY
CONSTRUCTION: THE HEART OF THE UK
With ambitious targets and huge sums of money required to improve the nation’s key infrastructure – can offsite methods provide the answers? Gary Ramsay caught up with Will Varah, Programme Director, Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) at Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) to find out.
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Q: For those unfamiliar with the IPA and what it does – can you outline its function and what your role is as Programme Director for MMC at the IPA?
Q: The IPA has a Transforming Infrastructure Performance (TIP) strategy and the platform approach to design for manufacture and assembly (P-DfMA) – what is this set to achieve?
Will Varah (WV): The IPA is the government’s centre of expertise for infrastructure and major projects. We work across the policy environment, support delivery and provide monitoring and assurance. My work on MMC is focused on bridging between the strategy and implementation.
WV: TIP talks about value, rather than just the capital cost, and we need to start applying that thinking across the whole of the system, network and asset - not just within the confines of the project. It’s important that the outcomes we define at the outset will drive sustainable, productive, innovative approaches that support thriving
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communities. When we think about those outcomes, it’s clear that platform and manufacturing approaches could be transformative for productivity and enable the creation of jobs in stable manufacturing environments in addition to the current itinerant labour model. Q: How can P-DfMA enable new buildings to be designed and configured to drive whole-life value, lower carbon and energy use, better quality and overall better building performance?
