AIMCH
MAKING
NET ZERO NORMAL panelised MMC capacity, as a viable system of choice. As a result, we are going to see very rapid change over the next few years, with huge leaps in housing productivity, output and quality of the homes we build.
01 As the AIMCH R&D project – whose aim has been to develop, trial and scale up industrialised housing techniques ends, Project Director, Stewart Dalgarno, reflects on its achievements and predicts what’s next for the housebuilding sector. Over the last three years Advanced Industrialised Methods for the Construction of Homes (AIMCH) partners have sought to prove the efficacy of adopting near to market, scalable and viable industrialised approaches to housing delivery, such as panelised offsite modern methods of construction (MMC), design standardisation, housing pattern books and advanced manufacturing to build new homes.
40
w
This flagship housing innovation programme has been a truly collaborative enterprise involving forward thinking housebuilders, stakeholders, suppliers, sub-contractors and academia. As it ends, I know that the partners who have been involved, are enormously proud at having helped take their own businesses and the housing sector forward, recognising that housing industrialisation can transform how we build homes, building a strong base, so we can transition towards net zero carbon homes and communities of the future. Because of our work, scaling up volume production of net zero carbon ready homes in a factory setting, is no longer an abstract concept. Panelised MMC methods and housing industrialisation are here to stay. AIMCH has built the framework, created the rule sets and blueprints for factory investments to scale up production, using automotive expertise and processes to accelerate
STRUCTURALTIMBERMAGAZINE.CO.UK
Scoring several firsts Research methods and live site trials have been rigorous. We have tested and compared MMC timber panelised materials and processes with those of masonry-built homes, looking at everything from cost, speed, labour, embodied carbon emissions, and on-site health and safety from every conceivable angle. This has culminated in a range of scalable near to market solutions, with the learnings easily adopted by other housebuilders of all sizes, the supply chain and housing associations. Of the many deliverables achieved, we have delivered several remarkable industry firsts, among which is the UK’s first zero carbon (NZC) concept home. The Z-House was built by AIMCH partner, Barratt Developments in collaboration with Salford University to meet the Future Homes Standard. Pattern books of NZC ready affordable homes, which have leveraged learnings from design for manufacture and assembly, design standardisation, product families and BIM 3D modelling, have also been produced. These will help SMEs, housing associations and new developers accelerate the speed and volume of new homes being built. And of note, is the development and investment committed to develop one of the worlds most advanced production lines for open and closed panelised timber MMC build systems, Donaldson Timber Systems (formerly Stewart Milne Timber Systems) using state-of-the-art automation and robotics.
