Eagle-eyed observers may have detected a linguistic transformation that is happening amongst many of our construction leaders and industry commentators. I first detected this amplification phenomenon at the start of the year, through conversations with many of our customers and supply chain partners, recognising a discernible increase in the frequency of terms relating to modern methods of construction (MMC) – the catch all vessel describing smarter building practices.

In an acronym rich industry, our vocabulary is expanding with the rise in prominence of DfMA (design for manufacture and assembly) and even P-DfMA (a Platform approach for Design for Manufacture and Assembly). Talk of standard component design principles is increasingly commonplace and even volumetric design has been dusted down and is raising its head once more.

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