The complexity involved in construction processes.
Adjusting the concrete mix to be flowing rather than self-levelling which would reduce the cement content.Exploring the use of low carbon concrete columns instead of steel ones.. Façade: Opportunities to improve the embodied carbon of facades, including finding alternatives to unitised and curtain walling systems, and their materiality.. Cladding: Elongating a material or components’ lifespan may increase the day one carbon but over the lifetime of the building the whole life carbon can be minimised, where replacement cycles are reduced.. Aluminium procurement: Minimising transport miles is important for materials.
However, the country of origin is also important for materials and components which are heavily manufactured, such as curtain walling.Sometimes the additional transport miles might offset the manufacturing emissions in counties with greener energy grids.. Substructure: Omitting basements should be the starting point of projects.. Raised floor: Reuse existing materials, both from demolition on site but also local existing buildings which are undergoing renovation or demolition.The industry needs to develop a material database to assist with this, but the more demand the quicker it will happen.. MEP: The LETI benchmarks are underestimated for high end offices.
To meet the LETI benchmarks this means every other element in the building needs to perform better to offset the impact of MEP.MEP calculations are still in their infancy compared with the rest of the building, meaning more research and data collection is required to create robust calculations and benchmarks.
MEP has a short lifespan compared with other elements and as such it is even more important to consider the whole life impact of services, alongside the operational carbon impact..
At two thirds of the whole life carbon, embodied carbon is critically important within an office building.The MMC toolkit includes a range of systems, components and material and process innovations including off-site and site-based solutions.
New MMC innovations are developed all the time.. Design to Value: moving forward with DfMA.As designers we at Bryden Wood believe strongly in the DfMA approach and have used it successfully on many projects to achieve considerable benefits.. We advocate for any designer of buildings to apply a DfMA approach by considering efficient construction methods to leverage the benefits of manufacturing and assembly, and design with them in mind from the earliest stage.. Getting started with DfMA is the hardest part and too big a topic to discuss in detail here but a great first step is to keep up to date with MMC innovations and think about how those innovations can be used to deliver better project outcomes.. Clients can support greater uptake of DfMA by demanding the best value project outcomes to ensure a benefit-driven approach to MMC adoption is applied on their projects.. As the MMC toolkit grows it becomes more and more powerful.
It is great to see players across the whole construction industry developing new innovative approaches to construction that expand the MMC toolkit.. To help the industry move forward, governments also have a role to play by encouraging and rewarding innovation and providing streamlined (but still robust) regulatory approvals processes for MMC innovations.. With a strong and diverse MMC toolkit and growing DfMA experience in the design professions, the industry as a whole will be better positioned to seize the opportunity to deliver better performing buildings, with less resources, that deliver maximum value to clients.These are the key aims of a Design to Value approach.. [1].