What is platform construction and why is it important? Built Environment Matters podcast with our Head of Global Systems, Jaimie Johnston MBE

They call younger people like me "digital natives", because we've grown up with computers.

Learn more about how we support personal and professional development at Bryden Wood.For pretty much forever, on-site or in-situ construction has been the default way of building.However with accelerating interest in Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) and Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), it sometimes seems that on-site construction is falling out of favour..

In 2019, the UK’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) – as it was then called – published an MMC Definition Framework (see my earlier article,.What does DfMA stand for?).This framework proposes Pre-Manufactured Value (PMV) as a metric for assessing the scale of MMC adoption on a project.

PMV is calculated as the percentage of cost that is derived before any site works and strongly encourages maximising the proportion of off-site works.. As a result, many parts of the construction industry are focusing more and more on off-site prefabrication in pursuit of benefits including lower cost, reduced delivery timescales, higher quality, improved health and safety, less waste and more productive site labour..But is off-site always the best way to achieve these benefits?

Construction sites have been around since the dawn of civilisation.

Do we really want to walk away from all that learning, and start moving as much of the construction process as possible into distant sheds?.The UK and US are reducing regulations to stay competitive in the market, whereas the EU is maintaining a high regulatory stance, and, as such, this market seems to be stagnating.. How does all this impact project development?.

10 to 15 years ago, when average cab density was still well below 10kW per cab, proximity to fibre network was the key indicator for site viability.However, the expansion of fibre networks and reduced latency criticality associated with AI, has shifted the focus to power availability.

Increased non-water-based cooling demands with an associated increase in power consumption is further driving most site acquisition conversations to focus on power, and lead time to power availability..The simplicity of the single-story campus also remains a key challenge for Europe, and, even in the US, this development strategy is being challenged.