The new Construction Innovation Hub Platform programme will support the government’s ambition to drive innovation and build industrial capability and capacity in businesses throughout the UK to deliver more sustainable buildings in the near future
The Platform programme – which uses Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) – will be driven by a collaborative team of integrators comprising some of construction’s biggest players: Skanska, BAM, PCE, MID Group, Kier, VINCI Construction UK, Mace and Mott MacDonald.
A central plank of the Hub’s four-year government-backed programme to transform UK construction, Platforms will enable new buildings to be designed and configured using a pre-defined ‘kit of parts’, which are proven to demonstrate greater whole-life value, lower carbon and energy use, better safety and quality and which will improve the overall performance of buildings.
Supported through every step of the programme by manufacturing, building performance and digital specialists from the three partners of the Hub – the MTC, BRE and CDBB.
Platform participants will develop and refine their products, technologies or services which will then be installed and widely showcased on a proof-of-concept building, demonstrating how these solutions can be applied across a wide range of UK government projects for vital new buildings like schools, hospitals and prisons.
The wider collaborative team for the Hub’s Platform programme comprises over forty businesses drawn from a range of disciplines and includes a number of specialist SMEs, who will work alongside the Hub and the integrators, providing design, specialist consultancy services, sub-assembly, components and materials that will be showcased on the proof of concept building.
Driving improved productivity
Speaking at Futurebuild2020, Construction Innovation Hub programme director, Keith Waller, said: “Our flagship Platform Design programme is a game-changer for construction.
“With the right blend of expertise and collaboration across government and industry, we could see a critical mass of newly built projects like schools and hospitals constructed using the Platform approach in as little as ten years, driving improved productivity and performance for the sector and better outcomes for the environment and society.
“The innovative businesses joining us on our journey are the vanguard of transformative change, not just in terms of how we create buildings, but in how those buildings impact on our lives and the environment.”
MMC programme director at the infrastructure and projects authority (IPA), Will Varah, said: “There is a strong alignment between the IPA’s P-DfMA approach and the Hub’s Platform programme.
“We look forward to working together to deliver a more sustainable and productive way to meeting our ambitious investment programme.”
