Promoting off-site construction: future challenges and opportunities

While manufactured construction can be traced back to approximately 1851 (Gibb 2001), in the last two decades, a resurgence has occurred, which has now started to gain increased popularity and momentum (Arif and Egbu 2010). For example, in the United Kingdom (UK), the off-site construction industry grew from £2.2 billion in 2004 to £6 billion in 2006 (Goodier and Gibb 2007); and the UK is not unique in the adoption of manufactured construction, as different types of off-site construction techniques are quite common worldwide.However, if off-site construction is to make a sustained positive contribution in the marketplace, research is needed to identify the pervading issues that constrain the uptake of this, or conversely, can promote this in a more reasoned and defendable way, especially taking into consideration the existing societal, cultural, and current business models associated with conventional thinking and practice. Cognizant of this, a task group (TG74) was commissioned by the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB). This group had a mandate to lead international research strategy to address theories relating to production and business models within the built environment disciplines; it was also tasked with developing an off-site built environment research roadmap for construction. This paper presents preliminary findings of a TG74 workshop that focused on identifying the core drivers, variables, and strategic priorities facing the construction industry in the short to medium term.