Steel modular connections: lessons for removable accommodation
Buildings · 22 September 2026
Lessons for module alignment, restraint and reuse from steel modular connections, with a consistent interface that allows different connection designs.
About ExoSett
Research and Reading
ExoSett has developed within a much wider discussion about modular construction, adaptable buildings, circular construction and industrialised building.
This section collects a curated selection of research and other published thinking that helps inform, test or challenge the ideas behind ExoSett. Each entry considers why the source is interesting and where ExoSett may take a different view.
Shelter’s report: council housing as a lasting public resource
Shelter · September 2026
Council housing reform, an adaptable national accommodation resource and the security of permanent homes.
Demountable connections and circular construction
Discover Civil Engineering · 26 July 2026
Demountable structural connections and the questions they raise for repeated module replacement while the frame remains in service.
Design for Disassembly (DfD) and Building Adaptability
Journal of Cleaner Production · 22 April 2026
Building-level separation, estimated component reuse and a proposed measure of disruption during accommodation module exchange.
A building system at the core
McKinsey & Company · 21 August 2025
Analysis of building systems, value-chain coordination and focused scaling across the modular-construction industry.
Modular housing without second-class housing
FEANTSA · 2025
A housing-policy perspective on adequacy, location, essential services, stigma and social integration.
Modular construction and affordable housing supply
Center for American Progress · 2024
A US housing-policy report on factory production, adaptable homes and the obstacles to bringing modular construction to scale.
Housing-led approaches need homes—and more than homes
Urban Studies · 2024
Research from the Netherlands on permanent housing, support, conditional tenancies, autonomy and housing shortages.
How modular methods can redress housing crisis
RICS Property Journal · 15 September 2023
Property-industry context on housing supply, construction skills, productivity, net zero and the opportunities and difficulties of modular manufacture.
Modular homes and lived experience
Human Ecology · 2023
A longitudinal Cambridge case study about private accommodation, autonomy, home-making, support and changing lives.
Modular housing and homelessness
Centre for Homelessness Impact · 2022
Evidence from 33 UK temporary-accommodation schemes, and what their benefits, limitations and barriers mean for ExoSett.
Modular housing and the UK housing shortage
CIB International Conference · 2021
Construction-industry perspectives on factory production, transport, standardisation, skills, cost and construction speed.
Modular housing and permanence
Royal Holloway · September 2019
Resident experiences of temporariness, home-making and continuity at PLACE/Ladywell in Lewisham.
Could modular construction spark a housing revolution?
Arup · 2019
A discussion of mass customisation, adaptable homes, digital design, planning and the partnerships needed to deliver modular housing at scale.
Offshore accommodation within a standard module
Offshore Technology · 2017
An industry example of fully fitted, transportable rooms based on a common 20-foot module—and a useful contrast with ExoSett's persistent frames.