Road ahead looks good for prefab

Media Release
26 March 2013
Road ahead looks good for prefab

There has never been a better time for prefab, according to Dr Helen Anderson of the Productivity Partnership, a joint venture between industry and government which is working on raising construction sector productivity. The future of prefabrication, or offsite manufacture, is poised for growth following the hugely successful Kiwi Prefab: Cottage to Cutting Edge exhibition, at Puke Ariki museum, and book by the same name. This was also evident at the recent PrefabNZ national conference held in New Plymouth, which saw the launch of the Prefab Roadmap for New Zealand.

The Roadmap delivers the way forward for prefabrication in New Zealand, outlining the significant benefits to the New Zealand economy, across the design and construction supply chain. At a time when New Zealanders are seeking answers to how the construction industry can best meet increasing demands being placed on it, where labour and time are critical resources currently lacking.

The sector is faced with addressing a Christchurch rebuild which is gaining greater momentum, the on-going need to repair buildings with weather-tightness issues in Auckland, and an increasing housing shortage. This is a situation that cannot be effectively achieved by using traditional building methods. Prefab construction offers practical solutions that can provide measurable outcomes for New Zealand, including increased productivity, reduced waste and higher quality buildings. At a broader level these increases would see the design and construction industry contributing to a higher national GDP.

Prefabrication is an approach to constructing the built environment that has been at the leading edge of innovation for many years. Internationally, the proven technologies and practises used in this type of construction are well documented, and showcased on TV programmes such as Grand Designs. The Roadmap acknowledges and addresses some of the key challenges faced by the sector and provides clear and measurable objectives to achieve success, including the need for greater collaboration and leadership.

The PrefabNZ conference, attended by over 90 people from the design and construction industries in Australia and NZ, included presentations from local experts as well as five international speakers providing insights on prefab construction methodologies used in the USA, UK, Scandinavia and Australia. It was acknowledged that while there is still work to be done on the misconceptions of prefab, if the demand for well designed, high quality, affordable housing options is to be met in the next 5-10 years then prefab is the way to achieve it, the amount of new houses needed cannot be produced by “business as usual”. A comment acknowledged by Labour Party leader David Shearer, who visited the exhibition in February.

The Roadmap calls for a sector-wide collaborative approach, with the government taking a proactive leadership role to support continuous improvement. PrefabNZ has provided an industry leadership role for this sector for the past three years, and has a goal to increase the uptake of prefab in the sector to 40% by 2020. To date, this leadership has seen the establishment of the HIVE – Home Innovation Village in Christchurch, a two-year temporary showcase, and work is currently underway to develop a permanent medium-density housing showcase in Auckland.

The Roadmap was developed with the assistance of BRANZ and will feed into the Industry Research Strategy for the Building and Construction Industry.

For more information visit http://www.prefabnz.com/News/Roadmap/

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