Abstract
Advances in digital technology have inaugurated a ‘fourth industrial revolution’, enabling, inter alia, the growth of ‘offsite’ housing construction in advanced economies. This productive transformation seems to be opening up new opportunities for styles of living, ownership, place-making and manufacturing that are more sustainable, democratic and bespoke. However, the full potential of this transformation is not yet clear nor how it will interact with—in the UK context—ongoing crises in housing provision rooted in an increasingly financialised and critically unbalanced national economy, timid state housing policies and a longstanding cultural preoccupation with mortgaged ‘bricks and mortar’ housing. In this paper, we report on an ongoing mixed method project interrogating the technological, environmental and social implications of the emergence of offsite housing construction in the UK. To a degree, we situate this interrogation in the Northern English region of Yorkshire, an emerging focal point of the growing offsite construction industry in the UK but an area afflicted by entrenched, post-industrial economic imbalances. The results show that offsite house engineers, designers and builders are innovatively embracing digital methods, a low carbon agenda and new approaches to place-making but that they have had little role, so far, in resolving the deeper structural problems affecting housing production in the UK, bringing the sustainability of their innovation into question.
Highlights
In 2016, the UK government set its target of building one million net new homes by 2020 [1]
The North of England, known as Northern Powerhouse, has been identified as the one region in the UK outside London that can see the major impacts in terms of productivity from the increased use of offsite, at the point that an increment of gross value added (GVA) of about £960 million (1060 million Euros) a year has been estimated [50]
Through the discussion of the main key points of our knowledge exchange network, we have clarified some of the key issues and opportunities faced by the offsite construction sector
Summary
In 2016, the UK government set its target of building one million net new homes by 2020 [1] This was in response to long-term structural failures in housing supply, especially at the affordable level. The construction sector faces potential post-Brexit skills shortages and an ongoing technological revolution One outcome of these trends has been a growing interest in homes constructed offsite using automated and modular systems. Offsite construction refers to the broad spectrum of design, fabrication and build activity that takes place beyond the point of installation or assembly It is not a new concept—perhaps most famously associated in the UK with the iconic post-war ‘prefab’ home [2]—but it is one with growing influence in UK house-building. It alsotIht oarolffsueogrohsffatehrfesasuacsfieansoacftinibnaugtiilncdghinacghllaeinlnlfegonergmetoattoeiosentsatambbloliisdshheelelddinmmg e(eBtthIhMood)ds,saosof fhwoheuollsuianssignrcogobncoostitncrusatcnrtudiocndtiiiogninttahilnefUathbKrei(cUoantKisoint(eo. nsite buildbuusilidnguscinlagsscliacs‘sbicri‘cbkrisckasnadnmd morotratra’r’foforrmmuullaattiioonnss)),,tthheeppoolilciycylevleevrserasndancdomcommermciealrcairarlanagrreamnegnetms ents throuthgrhouwghhicwhhitchhisthbisuiblduilmd emthetohdodisiscaclailbibrraatteedd aanndd nnoorrmmaalilsiesded(th(tehdeodmoimnainncaenocfevoofluvmoeluhmoueshe ouse buildbeurisl,daerps,raopperonpseitnysitoy t‘oba‘bnakn’kl’alnadnd, ,ththeettrreeaatingg ooffhhoouusisninggasaas caocmommemrceiarlcaiaslseats)saentd) athnedstohceials,ocial, econoecmonicoamnicdaenndveirnovnirmonemnetanltalilmlimitaittaitoionnssoofftthhiis ortthhooddooxxyy. .TThahtastasida,ido,ffosifftesictoencsotrnuscttreudchteodushinoguissing is perhappesrhaampsbiagmuobuigsu, opuosl,itpicoaliltliycaslplyeaskpienagk,insege, mseienmgilnygilny ailniganlmignemntewntitwhittrhantrsainensiten‘pto‘po-upp-u’ pu’rbuarbnadnesign innovdaetsiiognnsinthnaotvactainonbsrteheadt cparnecbarreieodupsraencadriuounscearntdaiunnrceelratatiionnrsehlaitpiosnwshitiphs‘hwoitmh e‘h’ o[5m,6e]’ [b5u,6t]ablusot aolspoening new ooppepnoirntgunnietwiesofpoprobrtoulnditeiexspfeorrimboelndtsexinpecroimmemntusniintycosmelfm-buuniiltdy asenldf-bsuuisldtaainnadbsleusptalaincaeb-slehapplainceg- [7,8]
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