Built Offsite

Modular construction has long been promoted as a way to build housing faster and cheaper. Freecity, the Sydney developer assembling high-rise apartment buildings from modules manufactured in China, is demonstrating the first proposition. The second remains less certain. (main image: Freecity’s Herring Road project puts factory-built housing into practice.) In the first of... READ MORE

Australia's Commonwealth, state and territory governments have agreed to pursue nationally consistent regulatory pathways for modular and prefabricated construction, placing the adoption of modern methods of construction (MMC) within a broader program to modernise the National Construction Code (NCC). The commitment emerged from the second Joint Ministerial Meeting on Housing Supply and Affordability,... READ MORE

Australia’s prefabricated construction sector is testing a proposed building identification system designed to address one of modular housing’s persistent financing challenges: verifying the value and progress of homes while they are being manufactured offsite. National peak industry body prefabAUS is leading a pilot of the Building Identification Number (BIN), developed by digital building... READ MORE

A 38-apartment social housing development in Perth’s coastal suburb of North Coogee has been completed eight months earlier than a conventional construction programme, demonstrating how prefabricated masonry and modular bathroom systems can accelerate multi-residential housing delivery. (Credit all images John Carey MLA) Delivered by Western Australian businesses PARC Developments and Tyrone Group, the... READ MORE

Australia's transition to industrialised construction may depend less on developing new workforce skills than on whether governments are prepared to use their purchasing power to establish a viable market for it. (main image: Visitors tour Green Timber Technology’s advanced manufacturing facility in Orange, NSW, during an open day. Credit image: Carlos Garcia, Homag... READ MORE

Partner content Australian builders considering offsite manufacturing should first establish how their products, information and materials will move through production before committing to advanced automation, according to Randek’s Ola Skoglund and Jason Reints. (main image: Randek’s ZeroLabor robotic sub-assembly system automates the manufacture of timber wall components, including door and window openings and... READ MORE