Could modular construction spark a housing revolution?

The article argues that modular construction could improve the way homes are conceived, designed, approved and manufactured without requiring every place or dwelling to look the same. It connects factory production with mass customisation, local design response, digital design platforms and a more predictable planning process.

It also considers homes that can respond to changing needs, including as their residents grow older, and emphasises that modular housing can only reach scale through cooperation across the wider housing system.

The article dates from 2019. Its market statistics and observations about the industry describe that moment; the enduring interest for ExoSett lies in the underlying design and system ideas rather than in age-specific figures.

ExoSett also depends upon standardisation, but primarily at the level of interfaces, structural geometry and defined constraints. The intention is not to standardise complete buildings. A common ExoSett system should be capable of supporting many different buildings and many different accommodation modules.

This makes Arup's discussion of mass customisation particularly relevant. Repeatable rules and components can provide a stable framework within which designers respond to different sites, uses and occupants.

Arup's interest in homes responding to changing needs connects strongly with ExoSett's emphasis on buildings that continue to evolve during their lives. The distinction is one of emphasis. Conventional modern methods of construction are often principally concerned with improving initial construction; ExoSett is particularly interested in what becomes possible afterwards.

Conventional MMC industrialises construction. ExoSett seeks to industrialise subsequent change as well.

That ambition includes making it practical to install, remove, replace and reconfigure accommodation while retaining building infrastructure that remains useful.

Arup describes digital platforms through which agreed design choices could move from configuration towards planning and production. A related long-term idea for ExoSett is that the system's geometry, interfaces and constraints should be expressed in a machine-readable specification.

Such a specification could help designers and manufacturers test whether components and arrangements are compatible. It would not replace professional design, engineering or regulatory assessment for a particular building.

A well-defined, repeatable building system could eventually make some aspects of design, engineering and planning more predictable. Agreed interfaces and known constraints may allow recurring questions to be addressed consistently while leaving site-specific decisions open.

ExoSett does not presently have regulatory approval, and approval of one ExoSett building would not automatically approve another. Every implementation would remain subject to the planning, design, engineering and regulatory requirements of its location and use.

Arup recognises that modular construction depends upon designers, manufacturers, developers, planners, public bodies and others working together. Technical components alone do not create a viable way of delivering housing.

The same is true of ExoSett. For the concept to become a defined building system rather than merely a technical invention, its rules and responsibilities must be useful to the people and organisations that design, approve, manufacture, assemble, operate and change its buildings.

Much modular construction starts with the accommodation unit or the building and asks how it can be manufactured more efficiently. ExoSett starts with long-lived building infrastructure, particularly the accommodation frame, service frame and standardised interfaces.

It then asks how accommodation can be installed, removed, replaced and changed while that infrastructure remains available. This is not a claim that ExoSett is inherently superior to other modern methods of construction. It is a different emphasis and a different architectural and system proposition.

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