Incorporating passive design in your projects will mean less M&E services will be required, which means you will benefit architecturally from things like higher ceiling height, larger areas needing smaller risers and smaller plant rooms.

With construction currently contributing 39% to global carbon emissions, we simply aren’t moving fast enough and the issue needs to be brought forward.She also says that while her team has really begun to understand the business model innovation that’s possible, they don’t yet understand how to take it forward.

Action research is needed to be able to study and do at the same time.Testing out some different business models on live construction projects would be risky, she says, but also a magnificent opportunity.. Bryden Wood has previously discussed the fact that the issues currently holding back the construction industry aren’t the technical aspects, but rather the cultural issues, insurances, warranties etc.In essence, we need someone to take the brakes off, overcoming the friction and constraints.

COVID-19 facilitated that to a certain extent, with companies forced to transition to digital very quickly and managing to do so successfully.However, while every other sector has experienced disruption to their business model creating major changes, construction is very risk averse and the implications are long-term.

To get a digital thing slightly wrong has, in a sense, a transience that doesn’t matter.

However, there are bigger implications for not building a building correctly..On the other hand, Hong Kong has potential access to Chinese manufacturers.

As such, forms of modular will no doubt be part of the future solution..In the US, there have been several conferences about ‘industrialized construction,’ and players like Katerra and Factory_OS are developing their own vertically integrated offers..

Overall, there is a global recognition that a more manufacturing-like approach is needed.‘Volumetric’ seems to be the first and most obvious starting point, but we believe there is a need for a wider and more sophisticated ecosystem of DfMA.