OFFSITE EDUCATION
LEARNING TO CHANGE
It is time for more offsite methodology and thinking to be introduced into architectural study, says Nigel Ostime, Delivery Director, Hawkins\Brown Architects, who is part of a new wave of industry specialists introducing educational change in the way we design buildings.
1 Over the last few months, alongside other architect members of Buildoffsite, I have had the pleasure of collaborating with Oxford Brookes School of Architecture to help them develop a one-year module in Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) and modern methods of construction (MMC) for their post graduate diploma course.
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Along with developing an understanding of digital technology, we see this as mission-critical for both the construction industry and the profession. This sentiment is echoed in the title of the influential 2016 report by the government’s MMC champion Mark Farmer: ‘Modernise or Die’. The change in approach to design of the built environment
needs to be introduced at an early stage in architects’ development and integrated into the design process. Closely aligned to this manufacturingled approach is standardisation, which can both improve productivity and free up designers to focus on the areas they can bring greater value like placemaking, beauty and improved
WWW.OFFSITEMAGAZINE.CO.UK | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020