BRE BR393 PDF

Introduction

Standardisation and prefabrication have been significantly promoted in recent publications, not least in the Construction Task Force report "Rethinking Construction¹ as a means of improving construction processes. However, despite the success of pre-fabrication in commercial and industrial sectors, these construction techniques have had only limited use in UK housing developments.

This report aims to identify the reasons for this limited uptake in the housing market by investigating current trends, attitudes and perceptions amongst various groups of construction professionals.

In addition, pre-fabricated systems can be more flexible (both internally and externally) than conventionally built housing as the modules/components can be moved around to fit the changing needs of the client. Flexibility of design is of increasing importance to social housing providers as their client requirements change over time (i.e. the number of elderly people/young families needing to be housed in appropriate developments is progressively changing).

This report also aims to clarify whether or not increased flexibility could be achieved through the use of modular construction techniques.

¹ Rethinking Construction, Construction Task Force 1998