Solution to UK’s Housing Crisis (Dissertation Sample)

Over the last decade, there have been an increase in need for better housing. Emergencies and natural disasters that affect on-site construction have also been on the rise. Construction can sometimes be costly and time-consuming. With an aim to have affordable and decent housing as envisioned in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), technologies such as and the Modular Integrated Construction (MIC) need to be adopted. The Covid-19 pandemic was one of the deadliest diseases that affected most parts of the world within a short rime and became a challenge to deal with it. It was necessary to build new health facilities to attend to the patients. The Modular Integrated Construction was the technology used in most countries that won the fight against spread of the disease. China is a perfect example. The technology enhances faster construction, presents lower assembly time and cost, has increased reliability on the prefabricated components, encourages less waste generation and improves worker’s safety. From these benefits, the technology has become popular in most developed and developing countries. The technology is here with us and its inevitable to fail to adopt it.
Introduction
Construction began many years ago with the main aim of building being protection from the harsh climate. Building materials that were used were perishable and included animal hides, leaves and branches. In the modern-day world, sophisticated technologies and durable building materials have been developed. Population growth and the need to live decently in good houses are what pushes people to build nowadays, Construction of a building within the given time and budge is also targeted by the current contractors. Safety of those working in high-rise building is also a factor that is considered when designing and constructing. Cleaner environment is also essential to humans. The worldwide global warming challenge calls for players in the building and construction to advocate for technologies that produce less waste to the environment. Among all these desirable factors, the Modular Integrated Construction emerges to be the solution being a safer, less-time consuming and faster method of construction.
This report will explore how Modular Integrated Construction has been adopted in the modern-day architecture as a faster, safe and timely method of construction. A look into how the method has changed the construction industry will also be done. Research construction methods that may strengthen and popularize MIC will also be addressed to allow for acceptability and adoption in most parts of the world.
Research
To deliver a good report, academic papers on Modular Integrated Construction are heavily on, the literature and other available external sources like internet. The report uses a number of books, reports and internet sources. The use of academic sources and the internet makes the data and information in the report valid and acceptable.
History and Background
What is Modular Integrated Construction (MIC)
Modular Integrated Construction is the process of construction a building off-site under certain controlled conditions with same materials and building standards and codes used in other construction techniques. The time taken is estimated to be half of the normal building techniques as per the Modular Building Institute, the largest trade association in the modular construction space. In modular construction, there are two most common types of construction:
Volumetric modular construction
The process entails building entire rooms with complete walls, floors and ceilings in the factory and transporting to the site for assembling purposes. Permanent and relocatable buildings are done using this technique. Hotels, camping rooms and temporary classrooms can be built using this method.
Panelized construction
The process entails building interior and exterior rooms in the factory and transporting them to the site for assembling. The remaining part of the building is fixed on-site.
History of Modular Integrated Construction in the UK
An old prefab house in Heaton Park, UK
The Second World War led to destruction of lots of buildings from the bombs. As a faster way of resolving the housing crisis, the UK government embarked on the use of MIC to have its people get new homes. There was also an increased demand for mass social housing that led to the adoption of the technology. To survive the times after war, about 15 years, the government constructed bungalows that could survive beyond their design life. The success of the technology was enormous. The only challenge that faced the new innovation was delivery in large projects in cities across the country. More than 450,000 homes have been built by the end ten years. They were prefabricated and factory produced. Later on, prefabrication was adopted widely in the country due to its off-site production and mass production within a shorter time. Precast concrete, steel frames and timber-frames were mostly used in building the homes. The government in tended to have the homes as for some time and phase them with an ordinary building program for permanent homes. O’Neill and Organ,2016 are of the view that the drive was motivated to allow people settle without recognition of existing building codes and standards. The number of people in need of accommodation was high and the government could not keep up. Also, there were cases of poor performance in some of the homes. At the time there were few building techniques that had been developed in UK. Despite the challenges, MIC gained traction. The government called for researchers to carry out experiments to come up with new building techniques. The technology was improved and is used till date in UK.MIC has been highly accepted in Japan, Sweden and Germany. It is expected that the global rate of use of the technology will grow at 6.3% annually and it’s expected the market share will be more than 215 billion pounds by the year 2025.
MIC vs other construction methods
There are certain factors that determine the type pf construction methods that is chosen. Investors on the construction industry are keen on having work done in time, save some money and get what they asked for from the contractor, quality. Some construction techniques are inferior to others and this has been proven over years. Some building materials also seen to be superior than others and hence commonly used in most buildings. Steel and concrete are examples of these materials. Just like the two, modular construction is superior over other construction methods. The techniques are time saving and also cost-effective. The cost-effective factor comes in when an investor is geared towards getting a faster return on investment. (ROI). A shorter time is taken in building using the method since it allows for industrialized assembly of materials in the site. The time spent on-site is drastically reduced. It takes 30%-50% lesser time to compared to other construction methods. Safety is also guaranteed in this method as the workers are in a factory and can be attended incase of accidents. The cases of accidents are also fewer since the workers are in controlled environments free from high heights, harsh weather among other accident-causing parameters. There is also improved productivity brought about by workers working in unison to have sections or compartments ready within a limited time. MIC has proven to be more superior by most of the other used construction methods.
MIC sustainability
Sustainability in the building and construction industry addressed the UN SDGs on Industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9), Sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) and SDG 13 on climate action. Modular construction has made the building sector more sustainable through:
Reduction of generated waste
The world is grappling with waste management issues. MIC is one of the methods that reduces waste production through its streamlined design and effective production. The UK Green Building Council reported in 2020 that more than 400 million tons of materials are used in the country annually in the construction sector. It approved MIC as a new eco-friendly technique that can be used to lower carbon footprint enhancing environmental sustainability. MIC has also been hailed for reducing up to 90% of waste due to its off-site production. In an effort to reduce waste generated in our environments. MIC is one of the building techniques that countries should advocate for through policies.
Savings on energy
Buildings can consume lots of energy in their construction process. For modular constructed buildings, more than 90% of the building works take place off-site. The approach enhances less disturbance and energy derivations from the environment. The buildings being prefabricated, the wastage of materials and resources is lower and hence a higher efficient use of energy. With a shorter time taken to construct the building the energy use is also cut. Most buildings made using this technology are installed with energy efficient systems that lower energy costs. Solar panels and energy efficient glass are the most common fitted systems. The use of this technology has led to it being termed as a green technology due to it long-term energy saving impacts. Energy costs for the participants are also reduced.
Enhances recycling of materials
Almost varying can be recycled in MIC. Steel, wood and even glass can be recycled in the processes involved buildings can also be recycled. Some people call MIC buildings portable buildings because they can be shifted from one location to another. This means they are recyclable. The name mo...