What is MMC in architecture?

Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) turns up in funding frameworks, design guides and procurement briefs across the built environment. Behind the acronym is a change in how architects think about design, delivery and the spaces they create.

The main types of MMC

MMC covers a group of approaches intended to make construction more efficient, more sustainable and more consistent. They include:

• Volumetric modular buildings: rooms or pods built in a factory
• Panelised systems: walls, floors and roofs assembled offsite
• Precast concrete components
• Light steel and engineered timber frames
• Digital tools such as BIM, and DfMA
• Integrated manufacturing and logistics

Taken together, MMC is about designing and delivering better from the ground up.

Designing systems as well as forms

What sets MMC apart is the thinking behind the assembly. Architects working with MMC design systems as well as shapes. They plan for:

• Precision and repetition
• Practical installation on live sites
• Energy performance and compliance
• Lifespan, maintenance and adaptability

We treat MMC as a starting point, not a layer added later. We think about delivery from the earliest stage and keep the people and purpose of each project in view. Our guide to MMC and DfMA explains how DfMA principles fit in.

Past the prefab image

For some people MMC still recalls post-war prefabs: basic units put up for speed rather than quality. That picture is out of date. MMC today can deliver:

• Rich, contextual architecture
• Better energy and acoustic performance
• Less disruption on site
• Lower embodied carbon
• More certainty on time, cost and compliance

The systems may repeat. The results do not have to.

New standards are supporting this change. See PAS 8700 and the MMC adviser.

Why MMC matters now

Clients and communities face pressing needs:

• Faster delivery of housing, education and healthcare buildings
• More accountability for carbon
• Tighter regulation and limited resources

MMC is a response to those pressures. Done well, it lets us build with more care, more intelligence and more consistency, which we see as responsible design. A better way to design sets out our wider approach.