Bring it on

Off-site construction is on the starting blocks. It has been through the trials, reckons it has proved its worth on sites around the country, and now it is going for gold. Ask manufacturers in the sector to name the best opportunity for off-site in the near future, and they will cite the string of projects coming up for the London 2012 Olympics.

“It should be an exemplar off-site opportunity,” says Darren Richards, managing director with off-site consultant Mtech Group. “The Olympic village can tap into all the work that has been done in using off-site construction for keyworker housing. There is the possibility to have a field factory. Buildings could be permanent or temporary.”

Richard Ogden, chairman of new industry body Buildoffsite, agrees: “It is a tremendous opportunity for our sector, and we are about to look at where the opportunities will be, not only for off-site but for re-locatable buildings.”

The Olympics could mark the next phase in the evolution of off-site construction (see box). Through the 1990s it was private sector businesses such as fast-food chain McDonald’s and airports operator BAA that championed and promoted its use. Now, their lead is being followed by NHS trusts and housing associations.

Health, housing and education have become big industry users of off-site construction, thanks to the mighty push being given by government programmes and initiatives. As one off-site sector leader put it: “Tony Blair has been good for off-site construction.”

Buildoffsite’s Ogden recognises the part that the government has played, but is keen to put it into context. He says: “The government has got behind off-site. Their contribution has been important to the evolution of off-site, but it won’t change the entire construction industry. What they’ve done is provide seedcorn that will hopefully demonstrate the benefits of off-site construction to others and encourage crossover.”

But the key questions for the future of off-site construction are exactly where, apart from the Olympics, will that seedcorn be going, and how could that crossover happen?

The healthcare sector’s demand for more facilities, getting them in fast, and often around existing buildings, has long made it an obvious market for off-site. Pressure within the NHS to hit targets and cut waiting lists has added momentum and generated new initiatives, such as the government’s treatment centre programme which is aiming to reduce waiting lists for basic operations with a national network of specialist treatment centres (see box, page 15). Modular building manufacturer Yorkon has just completed a £9m treatment centre in Shepton Mallet and is now working on a second £6m project in Portsmouth. “Health is the biggest sector for us,” says Keith Blanshard, director and general manager with Yorkon. “The key factor is not just having the ability to make a module, but to be able to design a building for a specific purpose. The two are coming together now.”

The government’s 15-year Building Schools for the Future programme to rebuild secondary schools could be a big source of work for anyone involved in off-site construction, reckons James Pickard, director with Cartwright Pickard Architects. “It has real potential,” he says. “There seems to be a realisation in the BSF programme that there isn’t enough money to knock down existing schools and build new everywhere.” Instead school clients are likely to look increasingly to refurbishment and extension of existing facilities, a move that will bring with it issues like decanting and use of an existing school site, where off-site construction could provide ready solutions.

Within the affordable housing sector the government’s promotion of off-site has been driven by the Housing Corporation. Contractor Willmott Dixon says it is now using timber frame and steel panel construction for the whole gamut of home types – general needs, special needs, student, and from low-rise to five storey. Increasing use of partnering has also helped the spread of off-site construction within the affordable housing sector, says Brendan Ritchie, innovation director with Willmott Dixon Housing. He says: “Last year all of our work was partnering and that has allowed us to drive the supply chain. Because we’ve got a limited number of partners we are not re-inventing the wheel.” The contractor has now gone a stage further and established a “buying club” whereby clients can opt to source modular bathrooms from its key suppliers, and achieve cost economies.

Such innovations are associated with public sector housing, and yet this is a clear example of where the government is now giving the private sector confidence to invest. Over the past year or so more private sector players have entered the off-site arena, notably Redrow Homes with its Debut range of low-cost steel frame homes, which sell from £49,995. Government regeneration agency English Partnerships has given further encouragement this year with its Design for Manufacture competition, which invited private and public sector housing providers to come up with a house design, using either conventional or off-site construction, that would have an overall build cost of £60,000.

Pickard says: “We are finding that private developers want to do it [use off-site build methods]. It is a question of the supply chain maturing. Over the next five to 10 years there will be a radical shift in how we build low-rise houses. I think brick and block will drop from its present level of 80% to 20%.”

Concerns that manufacturing industry might not have the capacity to cope with a major shift to off-site construction are unfounded, say those within the sector. The UK Timber Frame Association reckons its sector has around 55,000 units a year of available production capacity. “Business is buoyant, but we still have capacity to produce about 2,000 units more per year from our Oxford plant,” says Christine Jones, sales and marketing director with Stewart Milne Timber Systems, which is working on such projects as a 532-unit scheme with Bellway Homes in Stepney, east London and a seven-storey apartment scheme with United House and Network Housing Group housing association in Wembley, east London.

The latter project involves building a 108-unit apartment block to sit over a Sainsbury supermarket car park. “I think this model will be used more,” says Colin Dixon, managing director of United House, highlighting supermarkets’ surface-level car parks as another potential and largely untapped market for off-site construction. And perhaps United House itself points the way ahead. Its contracting arm is using timber frame for affordable housing at the same time as its upmarket residential development arm, Modern City Living, is using bathroom pods to give its City pads a top-quality finish. That seedcorn seems to be growing.