Housebuilders staring down the 2025 Future Homes Standard – which will mandate a 75% to 80% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions produced by new homes – face a tidal wave that will not wash over without the wholesale adoption of modern methods of construction (MMC).
MMC offer far more than housing delivery at scale and speed, and offsite manufacturing can create significant savings in both embodied carbon emissions and operational carbon. The adoption of offsite manufacturing may well offer us a route out of the traditional linear and wasteful cycle of construction, declining quality and demolition, and on to a path of sustainable development.
Britain is an excellent case study in the limits of standard residential construction. Our housing stock is the oldest in Europe, with 38.7% of homes built before 1938, which presents a £400bn retrofitting dilemma, according to OBR estimates. Our old housing stock is also one of the most poorly insulated in Europe, resulting in both carbon and cash-burning homes.
Housing’s dual supply and sustainability crises are interdependent and require one solution. At the same time, the buildings we construct must be adaptable and able to be repurposed.
Assael’s RightSizer strategy, conceived in collaboration with Enfield Council’s Meridian Water team, lays out a roadmap for circular building design. Using reconfigurable structural frames and refurbished materials, we can design buildings that can be assembled and dismantled, unlocking recyclability.
While capital expenditure remains a constraint, the housing sector is moving inexorably towards the adoption of MMC. There are still barriers, not least tradition and the ‘way we’ve always done things’, but we cannot turn back the clock on climate change.
Local authorities, following in the footsteps of councils like Enfield, can help. It starts small, with a basic assessment of a developer’s triple bottom line – that being their ethos towards profit, people and the planet – and a thorough examination of MMC’s role in their development plans.
Alex Johnson is associate director at Assael Architecture
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