Streamlined design set to tackle rising construction demand

These processes act as a tool bag: one is never sure at the start of a project the necessary order of things – although dialogue always comes first..

Platform Design for Manufacture and Assembly (P-DfMA) offers a unique opportunity to refocus an industry beset by problems: low productivity, poor value, an aging workforce and not enough new workers.Operating in this current state, the construction industry simply can’t meet the needs of the future.

Our global population is increasing rapidly – it’s estimated to reach 11.5 billion by 2050.So there’s an unavoidable need to create high-quality and sustainable infrastructure for vast numbers of people, including housing, education, healthcare and transport.At the same time, our environment demands change, with the building and construction industry contributing a staggering 39% of global carbon emissions.

We must alter the way we design and build dramatically, both to keep pace with the needs of society and to prevent the acceleration of global warming.. At Bryden Wood, we are showing how this can be achieved through a process of industry collaboration and the adoption of modern methods of construction (MMC).By MMC, we mean all forms of innovation in construction - physical forms like P-DfMA, as well as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), robotics, data, automation, point cloud surveys, and so on… This is all in addition to the frequently used term ‘offsite’ which, in fact, only represents one aspect of MMC, or industrialized construction.

We aren’t exclusively referring to the process of manufacturing large modules in factories and moving everything off construction sites.

Although offsite will certainly form part of the solution, we propose to use a full range of new techniques and technologies, including platform design.We can do things like automate routing of certain utilities, based on the properties of the Chips.

And that enables us to try lots of different options in a short amount of time.As mentioned, this is a key element of our Design to Value approach, as it enables us to get closer to an optimum solution..

Unfortunately, we sometimes find ourselves in the conventional engineering situation of having to limit the number of options that we look at because we haven't got the time or the resources to look at too many.Clearly, it is fine to narrow down a set of options on a rational basis.