We need to smash the old methods of construction and replace them with something far more high tech. Think of it as the Luddites, but in reverse.
Prefab offsite construction is tough. Very tough. There may be fewer broken hearts in that sector compared to the plethora of failures in regular construction, but when these fledgling new businesses fail the size of the pain must be immense, and commensurate with the size of the dreams at stake.
We who care about a more sustainable built environment need to stand right alongside those who are trying to get these complex systems up and running.
The problem is it’s a new industry. As with all new ideas, technologies and movements, there are early casualties. It’s the nature of innovation. But someone has to be brave enough to bear the broken heart – and sometimes the bank balance – or we’d all be still stuck in caveland.
Thankfully these new ventures often attract new blood and sometimes from entirely different industries. Which is when things get interesting.
Because when it comes to the challenges ahead of us – we need bold, we need new and we need people from other fields with new views and none of our rusted on preconceptions.
A bit of blind enthusiasm can work wonders for overcoming hurdles that might no longer exist since last time we lookedes or can be made redundant with a new set of tools that have come to market.
Breakthroughs don’t usually spring from careful, risk free approaches – that’s just business as usual.
In a long conversation with Ben Nurmi, who’s been handed the reins at Viridi, the business that emerged from the plant and equipment sold up in the wake of the failure of prefab pioneer Strongbuild, it’s clear that he’s a sign of things to come.
First, he doesn’t come from the construction industry. Nurmi has worked within the industry starting with Strongbuild around 10 years ago, but his true background, he says, is in technology and in “scaling businesses”.
The tech side sounds intense (it always does). He’s worked with Apple, including establishing all the retail stores in Australia, Singtel Optus and a few other big outfits he can’t mention, thanks to confidentiality agreements.
But it’s technology and its ability to navigate complex systems that gives him the confidence to tackle prefab. The business skills too must be handy as Virdi itself has teetered on the edge of potential failure and is now in a deed of company arrangement that Nurmi expects to pull out of.
Both tech and business acumen are important of course but tech is the critical pathway that can navigate the complex systems that can deal with the climate and sustainability emergency that’s upon us.
We urgently need to disrupt conventional building and construction methods that are now badly out of date.
Prefab or MMC (modern methods of construction) has many issues it needs to solve. There’s the potential waterproofing challenge that New South Wales outgoing Building Commissioner David Chandler is concerned about; and there’s the aesthetics that are not usually heartwarming.
And there’s finance. On regular construction jobs the lender provides progress payments to protect it in case the client fails. The underlying asset may be a half built house but the house can be completed and sold and the bank get its money back.
In prefab, the bank has no asset other than the land until the building is fully completed. A kit-of-parts does not cut it if it’s only part kitted.
The funding might be possible but it usually comes at a sizeable premium to compensate for the extra risk the lender takes on.
These are all solvable issues.
But we need to try harder, not give up.
On finance Nurmi says he’s in discussions with finance outfits that can work with this new model at lower costs.
And if you step back and take a look from the high ground, prefab is inevitable, Nurmi says.
We agree.
In front of us is a housing crisis of global proportions, evaporating natural resources, the climate emergency that demands we get to net zero yesterday in all our materials and building systems, and there’s the reporting mechanisms that wants to know what the embodied carbon is in everything.
We need to lose the trophy obsession we have about our homes and be prepared to follow Europeans and Asian traditions where homes are a comfortable place to live with immediate family, and where socialising happens in public places.
The technological backbone that drives modern methods of construction can provide these answers. Where the product was made, where it was stored and how it was transported are all questions that MMC can deal with Nurmi says.
And these questions are critical when sometime in the future when the building owners or occupants need to make changes or deconstruct the thing.
“It wouldn’t matter if someone bought it in five years or 15 years. You know, how it was built, how it was put together, where everything was sourced from.” This is what intelligent building looks like, he says.
Nurmi wants the MMC world to tackle the housing crisis by coming up with options for small and individual housing, such as manor homes, as well as the multiple dwellings it’s focused on so far.
He says we need a new model of housing delivery inspired by examples elsewhere in the world. For instance, American developers might offer 20 or 30 finished houses to customers, while Aussies are stuck on going to Homeworld 2000 (or whatever) and sitting down to design a bespoke option.
We don’t expect to get bespoke options when we buy second hand homes. Or a new car. You buy off the shelf.
We need to lose the trophy obsession we have about our homes and be prepared to follow Europeans and Asian traditions where homes are a comfortable place to live with immediate family, and where socialising happens in public places.
Nurmi’s been doing some market research and reckons appetites in Australia are starting to shift, from necessity.
Young people seem ready to forego wiz bang McMansions for a modest (or any) roof over their heads and a place where the tap turns on and off and has actual water in it, he says.
MMC can offer some of the options.
It can’t do everything. “It’s horses for courses” and there will always be a place for the bespoke $2+ million architect designed home but he hopes MMC can be something architects can engage in and be proud to be part of.
Nurmi is a bright spark with a huge number of ideas for how this industry can succeed.
We need to help these early birds reach their destinations. Old hands need to open their hearts and minds and take a few risks – or at the very least share their insights to guide the newbies through the intricate shoals of finance, regulations, consumer inertia and the bloody minded opposition that opposes anything new.
We’ll be doing more on this topic – watch this space.