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Modern methods of construction (MMC) work best when a project team treats them as a delivery strategy from the outset, not as a late procurement substitution. In a 2021 opinion article, Lukas Thiel of White Arkitekter argued that UK projects can begin with enthusiasm for MMC and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA), then drift back toward traditional construction as design, contracts, logistics and commercial decisions accumulate. His diagnosis is a professional observation, not a controlled study of the industry; its practical value is the way it identifies the decisions that can either reinforce or undermine an MMC plan.
The central lesson is not that every project should use MMC. It is that teams should decide early whether a particular approach supports the project’s outcomes, then coordinate the consequences across the whole delivery system. If they do not, the approach can become progressively harder to deliver—and the project may abandon it without ever having tested whether it was suitable.
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What does MMC mean, and why can commitment fade?
Modern methods of construction is an umbrella term, not a synonym for modular housing. UK government guidance covers a range of offsite and onsite techniques and cautions that MMC may not be the best solution in every case. The relevant question is whether, how and to what extent it can support the project’s outcomes—not whether a team can label a scheme “MMC.” The government’s MMC guidance explicitly describes the decision as outcomes-based and says MMC is “not an end in itself.”
A government-backed framework published in 2019 organizes MMC into seven categories: pre-manufactured 3D primary structural systems; pre-manufactured 2D primary structural systems; pre-manufactured non-systemised structural components; additive manufacturing; pre-manufactured non-structural assemblies and sub-assemblies; traditional building products used to reduce site labour or improve productivity; and site-process-led labour reduction or productivity improvements. The categories range from volumetric units to changes in site processes. That breadth matters: a decision to pursue MMC still leaves the project team with a system choice, each with different design, supply, assembly and site implications. The definition framework is a useful reference when a team needs to be precise about what it means by MMC.
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DfMA—Design for Manufacture and Assembly—is the design discipline that makes a chosen production and assembly approach part of the design brief. In Thiel’s argument, the manufacturer’s platform and assembly constraints need to inform design early enough to shape decisions, rather than being accommodated after the design is substantially settled. The fade he describes is therefore not simply a loss of enthusiasm. It is a sequence of choices made on the assumption that conventional procurement and construction remain the default.
Thiel’s 18 March 2021 article in Building is the source of the project-level diagnosis and six considerations discussed below. It should be read as an experienced practitioner’s argument, not as proof that all UK projects follow the same pattern. Read Thiel’s original opinion piece.
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Start with the project’s outcomes and constraints, then assess a defined MMC approach against them. A blanket commitment to MMC before there is a project-specific case is no more useful than dismissing it before examining the options.
The initial viability assessment is the first decision point Thiel identifies. It should happen early enough to influence the programme and delivery plan, not after a conventional solution has already set expectations for design, procurement and site operations. At this stage, the team should establish what outcome it is seeking and what must be true for a proposed approach to support it. Relevant axes include:
- Project viability and intended outcomes: What project or programme objectives is the approach meant to serve? Which of those objectives can be assessed at this stage?
- Type and degree of pre-manufacture: Is the proposal a 3D structural system, 2D system, component, non-structural assembly, or an improvement in products or site processes? Avoid treating unlike approaches as interchangeable.
- Design and manufacturing fit: How much design coordination is needed, when must key decisions be settled, and can the manufacturer’s platform and assembly requirements inform the design in time?
- Delivery and site fit: What delivery timing, access, crane capacity, workforce skills and training requirements does the approach create?
- Commercial fit: How will scope, risk, cost and reasonable margins work for the main contractor and any MMC subcontractor?
- Material and compliance fit: Can the selected materials and supply route meet project requirements, and what regulatory, fire-safety, insurance or lending questions need to be resolved?
These are linked questions, not independent boxes to tick. A system that looks suitable in a design discussion may not work with the site’s delivery constraints or procurement timetable. Conversely, a supply or access challenge identified early can be addressed in planning; discovered late, it can become a reason to revert to a conventional approach. The government guidance’s outcomes-based framing is useful precisely because it allows the team to select MMC where it adds value and reject it where it does not.
Why must MMC enter the programme before procurement?
Because an MMC decision can change when work must be designed, procured, manufactured, delivered and assembled. If those effects are omitted from the early programme, later pressure to meet the assumed timetable can push the project toward a system that was never planned around pre-manufacture.
Thiel argues that the choice should be reflected in project timeframes from planning and site start through the release of homes for sale or rent. This is broader than asking whether factory work could shorten a construction phase. The sequence also depends on when the design is ready, when orders and information must be released, how long the supply chain needs, how deliveries reach the site and how assembly fits with other work. A programme that counts only activity on site can conceal the time and coordination required before a manufactured element arrives.
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Thiel’s next point is logistics and contracts. Delivery slots, access to the site, crane capacity, different skill requirements, training and longer lead-in times may affect the contract and the allocation of responsibilities. A plan relying on a specific delivery window or lifting arrangement needs the relevant parties to understand that dependency before it becomes a site constraint. Likewise, if the work calls for different skills, the workforce plan and training cannot sensibly be left until installation is imminent.
Early decisions do not remove uncertainty. They make it possible to identify which uncertainties the project must resolve, who needs to resolve them, and when the answers are needed. The practical distinction is between a programme that incorporates an MMC approach and a conventional programme with a factory component added later.
When should the manufacturer join the design team?
Bring the relevant MMC subcontractor or manufacturer into design development early enough to influence the solution—not merely to price a nearly finished design. Thiel specifically argues for developing the approach through RIBA Stage 2, when the team can still coordinate the design with the manufacturer’s platform and assembly limits.
Designing first and asking a manufacturer to accommodate the result can create a mismatch between the project’s assumptions and the system’s real constraints. Early involvement gives the team a chance to develop those constraints into the design process: what the system can supply, how it is assembled, what information must be fixed and which design choices depend on the selected platform. That is the practical meaning of DfMA in this context. It is not a label applied to a design after the fact; it is a way of shaping design decisions around manufacture and assembly.
Early involvement also helps connect design decisions to procurement, programme and logistics. If a design assumption affects how an element is made or delivered, the consequences can be surfaced while the team is still coordinating the proposal. The aim is not to give a supplier unchecked control of the design. It is to make sure the people who understand the manufacturing and assembly system can inform decisions before the project has committed to a solution that is difficult to produce or install.
How can contracts and business models affect the decision?
An MMC approach can change the distribution of work and commercial exposure between a main contractor and specialist suppliers. If the parties’ roles and commercial assumptions are not aligned with that changed delivery model, a project may struggle to retain the approach even when the design and logistics appear workable.
Thiel points out that an MMC subcontractor supplying a structural frame or volumetric units may carry a large share of construction cost. He also argues that reduced site-labour requirements can affect the main contractor’s workforce and economics. In his view, the contractor’s business model must still allow reasonable margins. These are explanations in the 2021 opinion piece, not a universal cost rule: the allocation of cost, risk and work will vary by project and chosen system.
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The implication is that teams should not assume a traditional contracting structure will automatically translate to an MMC proposal without review. They need to understand who is responsible for design coordination, supply, delivery, assembly and the interfaces between packages, and whether the commercial arrangements reflect those responsibilities. The contract should align with the project’s actual sequence and dependencies, rather than treating the manufactured element as a late, isolated purchase.
Commercial review is also a reason to involve the relevant parties early. If the contractor’s expected role changes, or a specialist supplier takes on a substantial part of the construction scope, that is better understood while the project is forming its delivery strategy than after the parties have built their plans around a different division of work.
What should teams consider about materials and sourcing?
Material selection must be assessed against the project’s design, sourcing and delivery context, rather than assumed to transfer unchanged from another market. Thiel’s article contrasts timber availability and properties as he describes them for the UK and Scandinavia, mentions locally available concrete and raises concerns about the limited number of UK MMC manufacturers at the time.
Those supply-market observations belong to the article’s 2021 context; they are not a current survey of UK manufacturer capacity, competition or prices. They nonetheless identify durable questions for project planning: Is the chosen material available in the required form and at the required time? Does the system depend on a particular manufacturer or platform? What happens to the programme and commercial assumptions if that source is unavailable or the supply route changes?
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Thiel also connected post-Brexit sourcing decisions with uncertainty he perceived around tariffs and delays. That is historical context from publication, not a current statement about trade rules. A project should establish its actual sourcing assumptions and check current requirements and lead times for the relevant materials and suppliers rather than treating the article’s 2021 uncertainty as a present-day fact.
The same care applies when comparing materials across countries. Thiel used Sweden to illustrate how a different manufacturing and contractor environment might support wider MMC adoption, but he cautioned that regulatory frameworks, industry traditions, labour costs and climate differ. A material or production model that is established in one country cannot be assumed to transfer directly to another without evaluating local conditions.
How should teams handle regulation, fire safety and risk?
Identify compliance and insurability questions early, and verify them against the current requirements for the specific project. Thiel noted potential site-safety and precision benefits from prefabricated elements, but his comments about cross-laminated timber (CLT), lending and insurance describe uncertainty he perceived in the UK context at the time his article appeared.
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In particular, the article links that 2021 uncertainty to the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire and the Hackitt review. It is historical context, not current legal, fire-safety, lending or insurance advice. It should not be used to infer that a material is now permitted, prohibited, insurable or financeable for a particular building. Project teams must check present building regulations, the project-specific fire strategy and relevant insurer and lender requirements before relying on any such conclusion.
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What does the Swedish example show—and what does it not prove?
Thiel cites Sweden as an example of a market where manufacturers and contractors invested in technical platforms, helping to support a broader shift toward MMC. His article says, “The vast majority of homes in Sweden are built using MMC,” but provides no quantified denominator or time series for that claim. It should be presented as his assertion, not as a measured statistic or a direct forecast for the UK.
More important than copying a claimed adoption level is the mechanism Thiel highlights: manufacturers and contractors investing in technical platforms and developing their capacity to deliver through them. That supports his central argument that an MMC strategy depends on coordinated choices by multiple project participants, not just a designer’s preference for a construction method.
Thiel also cautions that national contexts differ in regulation, industry traditions, labour costs and climate. The Swedish example is therefore an illustration, not a plug-in blueprint. It cannot establish that one system, procurement structure or adoption rate will work in the UK; project teams still need to test their choices against the local project’s outcomes and conditions.
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What evidence is available about MMC and housing delivery?
Homes England commissioned a 2021 study of MMC deployment in housing delivery that covered eight pilot sites representing approximately 1,800 homes. Those figures describe the study’s scope; they are not evidence that those homes were delivered faster, at lower cost or with lower emissions. The Homes England study page is a source for the research and its pilot-site context.
The distinction matters when assessing claims about MMC. A number of sites or homes observed is not itself an outcome measure. Teams should ask what was measured and what conclusion the evidence supports, rather than converting the existence or scale of a study into a claim of proven benefit. The same discipline applies to broad claims about national adoption or the performance of an approach: identify the source, scope and measure before relying on it in a project decision.
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How can a project keep its decision coherent as it develops?
Translate the initial choice into a continuing set of decisions, with named dependencies and review points. The aim is to keep the project’s design, programme, procurement, logistics, commercial model and compliance strategy aligned with the selected approach—and to revisit the choice when the evidence or constraints change.
- State the intended outcome. Record what the project expects the approach to support and what would count as a viable solution. Do not treat MMC adoption itself as the outcome.
- Name the system being considered. Use a precise description of the type and degree of pre-manufacture, rather than a generic “MMC” label. The government’s seven-category framework can help distinguish options.
- Build the programme around the system. Include the design, procurement and lead-in decisions as well as site activity, delivery and assembly. Thiel’s frame runs from planning and site start through homes’ release for sale or rent.
- Bring the manufacturer into design development. Involve the relevant specialist early enough to inform the approach through RIBA Stage 2 and coordinate the design with platform and assembly constraints.
- Resolve interfaces and logistics. Clarify delivery timing, site access, crane capacity, workforce skills and training, and align contracts with the responsibilities they create.
- Check commercial viability. Review the effect of the proposed scope and labour model on the contractor and subcontractor arrangements, including whether the commercial model supports reasonable margins.
- Verify materials and compliance assumptions. Establish current sourcing conditions, project-specific regulatory requirements, fire strategy and relevant lender or insurer considerations.
- Reassess when a dependency changes. If a supplier, design assumption, programme constraint or compliance issue changes, consider the selected approach against the project’s outcomes again. A deliberate review is better than allowing an unexamined series of default decisions to make the choice for the team.
This sequence is a practical synthesis of Thiel’s six areas—system thinking and production pipelines; logistics and contracts; business models; the design team; materials; and regulations—alongside the government’s outcomes-based qualification. It does not imply that every project can or should retain its original MMC proposal. It makes the reasons for continuing, adapting or stopping the approach visible while the team still has choices.
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Does MMC always mean a modular building made in a factory?
No. The government’s framework also includes structural components, non-structural assemblies, additive manufacturing, productivity-focused traditional products and site-process improvements. A project can consider MMC without choosing volumetric modules.
Can a project switch from one MMC approach to another after design begins?
It may be possible, but a change can affect design assumptions, manufacturer input, procurement, lead times, site logistics and contract responsibilities. The team should assess those knock-on effects against the project’s outcomes before treating a different system as a simple substitution.
Does the Homes England pilot study prove that MMC makes homes faster to build?
The cited study page describes research across eight pilot sites representing about 1,800 homes; those scope figures alone do not establish a speed benefit. To support a performance claim, the relevant findings and the study’s measures must be examined rather than inferred from the number of sites or homes.
Is the Swedish MMC model directly applicable to UK housing?
Not automatically. Thiel presents Sweden as an example of manufacturer and contractor investment in technical platforms, while warning that regulation, industry traditions, labour costs and climate differ between countries. Those differences make local project assessment essential.
