AIMCH: Future Casting
The UK’s Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener is set to be achieved by 2035. The construction sector accounts for a third of UK carbon emissions so transforming construction, using greener practices, reducing emissions, zero carbon homes and integrating biodiversity and electrification are an essential part of this strategy. The UK must achieve this to tackle climate change and reduce the warming of the planet, which is arguably the greatest challenge faced on this planet.
AIMCH: Future Casting
summary
The AIMCH project (Advanced Industrialised Methods of Construction for Homes), funded through UKRI via the InnovateUK Transforming Construction programme, pushed the innovation boundaries for the housing sector, introducing applications that can truly transform the sector into something, greener, more efficient, more productive, safer and low and zero carbon. Further projects must follow on and build on the findings of AIMCH to create further solutions in the key areas of electrification, Whole Life Value, Zero Carbon and Assured Performance, to provide the housing sector with solutions to achieving the ambitious government targets and going beyond these.
“Future Casting” takes some of the learnings from AIMCH and presents a researched opinion piece, proposing areas for further development, which are not necessarily aligned with any particular partner in AIMCH and could form the basis for future projects with other interested parties and funders, whether in the UK or overseas.
Resources
Conclusion
- Fabric first remains critical to enabling effective and efficient heating solutions for homes
- AIMCH demonstrated that advanced MMC methods can deliver improved fabric efficiency and productivity improvements at scale for volume house builders and suppliers. The approach can be adopted for further transformations in the sector
- Demonstrating effective, multifaceted energy balancing and storage solutions, whilst reducing the demand on the grid, is critical as we transition towards a 100% electric society
- Whilst delivering effective solutions for new homes is a key objective, the scale of the retrofit challenge is huge and must be tackled for there to be a broader impact on carbon reduction and fuel poverty across society
- There should be greater awareness of fuel poverty and the part that improved fabric can play in addressing this, as well as the benefits of renewable energy solutions
