Driven by the relentless development of CPU and GPU processing power, the need for ever greater power and cooling density at rack level continues to increase exponentially.
MMC can be considered as the DfMA designer’s “toolkit”.The DfMA designer finds the most suitable innovations in the MMC toolkit (or develops new innovations) to meet a project’s unique challenges..
There are many construction innovations that can be considered MMC.The UK’s Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) recently established a Joint Industry Working Group on MMC which proposed the following categorisation: 3D primary structural systems, 2D primary structural systems, Non-system components, Additive Manufacturing, Assemblies and sub-assemblies, Material and Product Innovations and Site Process Innovations.This categorisation is quite diverse and includes a range of pre-manufactured and pre-assembled systems but also non-system components, site-based material innovations and process innovations..
There is no fixed list of MMC methods in each category.There is great scope for the construction industry to innovate and develop new MMC methods to expand the toolkit and enhance the DfMA designer’s ability to achieve benefits on future construction projects..
Under the MHCLG categorisation, volumetric modular construction (known in Singapore as Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction or PPVC and in Hong Kong as Modular Integrated Construction or MiC) is an example of a 3D primary structural system..
In addition to volumetric solutions, many other different MMC methods including flat-pack and componentised systems are primarily prefabricated and are often grouped under the umbrella term “Offsite”..This allows us to engage more specialist stakeholders, and make sure their requirements for each of the rooms are met.. We describe this approach as designing the hospital from the inside out.
But we never lose sight of the architectural response to the brief.Creating a beautiful space is a value-driver in itself, with a proven link to clinical outcomes.
Nothing is in isolation..Flexibility through standardisation.