MMC 5543 48 May '16 cc (1)

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Building momentum
Bruce Meechan reflects on some of the news and views from the recent Explore
Offsite conference staged at the NEC Birmingham.
There was a slightly embarrassed pause
when the Minister for Housing, Brandon
Lewis, completed his short speech
welcoming the throng of delegates who had
assembled in one of the gallery suites at the
Atrium end of the NEC: not because of
anything he had said, but because he had
chosen to send a video message rather than
attend in person as he did for a similar event in
the capital a year back.
The moment of uncertainty, I am certain, was
delegates wondering whether they should
applaud a pre-recorded image, though just as
assuredly his words will have given everyone
confidence that the Government still very much
backs modern methods of construction – and
better building in general, despite the retreat
from Zero Carbon homes.
> The government continues to promote house
building and off-site agenda
Unavoidably absent due to Government
business, the MP for Great Yarmouth, who was
handed the portfolio for housing and planning
during the later stages of the Coalition, spoke of
the challenges facing the housing industry due
to the very high demand for residential
accommodation. And while remarking that he
backed all methodologies for the delivery of
housing, he significantly referred to the need for
speeding up the length of time it takes to build
them. “The initial build cycle of 20-24 weeks,” he
said, “has to be trimmed to just a few months,
maintaining high quality and led by customer
choice.”
He went on to refer to the skills gap and how the
UK can bring more people into the industry, and
establish factories able to produce the systems
needed to meet demand. “I believe that your
conference offers a huge opportunity for the
people here today to play their part in the
solution to how we deliver more homes, of high
10
quality – to design and build more quickly than
we have in the past.”
The keynote speech was in effect actually
delivered by the legendary guru of
redevelopment, the founder of Urban Splash,
Tom Bloxham. Obviously his early projects
focused on the conversion of some landmark,
often industrial buildings, where Modern
Methods of Construction were not appropriate;
and he confessed himself to not being either an
advocate or decrier of such solutions. They
tended, he said, to still prove costlier than
traditional trade routes, but confirmed: “What
we have found is that the advantages –
particularly in terms of quality, in terms of
capability, in terms of design - is why the
majority of our projects, going forward, will be
using offsite, and indeed fully modular
construction.”
Tom Bloxham went on to talk his audience
through a mix of his well-known and some
slightly less high profile projects; explaining their
negatives as well as positives, and how his
company had succeeded in riding out the
recession by delivering schemes which people
wanted to live or work within.
The baton was passed next to Rory Bergin of
HTA Design who offered the opinion that
manufacturing promotes cooperation rather
than confrontation; and praised the
professionalism of the manufacturers and
developers with whom he had worked over the
> The founder of Urban Splash, Tom Bloxham
past five years “pushing the boundaries of
volumetric construction.” He also added that
“our relationship with the teams gets stronger
with every project,” and spoke about the
potential of modular for creating some of the
very tall buildings which are planned for London
and other major cities where his practice has
offices.
The tempo of the debate was raised just prior
to lunch by what the event’s chairman
described as a “double header”, but which
turned out to be something more like a doubleact
with spokesmen from Barratt Homes and
Stewart Milne discussing the way in which the
two business had worked together on
facilitating projects, particularly north of the
Border.
Stewart Milne of course products both the
‘traditional’ timber frame in the form of open
panel, and the more offsite intense closed panel
systems. The two spoke of both the learning
processes and all important information
sharing, as well as the fact that an attempt to
‘superimpose’ a set of standard house types
onto timber frame methodology had to be
abandoned in favour of producing a series of
special details; right down to the inclusion of
gas services.
The overall message from the morning’s
speakers seemed to sum up the need for the
various parties in the supply chain to work
more closely and collaboratively, from the very
earliest possible stages of a project. The
delegates, including myself, then had the
chance to visit the stands set up by a couple of
dozen exhibitors in the space outside the
conference hall as they took some
refreshments.
Having also been involved with our sister
publication, HA or Housing Association
Magazine since its launch, I was also very
interested to hear the comments of a senior
representative from one of the big
housebuilders during a panel discussion later
on in the day.
Ever since the Waverley publications began
covering the offsite industry in the late
nineties, we have been hearing from
manufacturers about the sense in taking
advantages of the economies of scale, or in
other words, avoiding late alterations or overcomplexity
in terms of layout.
By contrast the speaker referred to social
housing specifiers being guilty of continual and
unnecessary customization of designs which –
worryingly – resulted in their schemes costing
double or more the price per square metres
which our volume housebuilders are willing to
pay.
The event at the NEC showed just how much
the offsite market is maturing in terms of
capacity and capability, but also reminded us
how much we have to learn in respect of the
way we make use of the manufacturer’s various
solutions.