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Our team includes technologists, designers, architects, engineers and analysts, because it’s vital that we apply these new principles throughout.To begin with a traditional design process and then, at a later stage, attempt to retrofit some form of DfMA means compromising the design to make it fit the system, or creating a non-optimised, inefficient system – resulting in a disadvantaged built asset.. Kit-of-parts architecture.
In addition, where the design and construction industry tends to focus on the differences between sectors - segmenting itself into deep specialisms and viewing particular elements in isolation, we must instead switch our focus to commonality, anchoring the design and build process in similarities, not differences.P-DfMA achieves this goal.For example, floor-to-floor heights are relatively standard across a variety of different buildings: schools, hospital wards, apartment buildings and certain office types.
This is because the heights result from the size of people, rather than being necessitated by the requirements of a particular sector.We allow for the height of a person, plus headroom, plus a zone for structures, M&E systems and architectural finishes.
Recognising this reality, platform construction (P-DfMA) was Bryden Wood’s attempt to identify these types of cross-sector commonalities and develop a kit of parts which could then be used to build a variety of different sector types, but using the same components.
This allows the application of manufacturing techniques and processes, with consistent quality achieved, as well as facilitating greater economies of scale..Automation and digital technology give us the ability to explore more possible solutions in less time, choosing the best from a broader set of options.. PRiSM helps designers and architects to save time usually spent reinterpreting rules from design guides and building regulations.
After all, it’s in the placemaking, the creation of positive user experience and stimulating aesthetic, that designers have the biggest impact and provide the most value in their work - not in repetitive processes like rules reinterpretation.It’s also important to recognise that tools like PRiSM don’t need to limit beauty or individuality in the built environment.
We use standardisation like the hidden skeletal bones of a building, but the outer manifestation can be as individual and unique as we are as human beings.. A Helpful Tool for the Wider Design & Construction Industry.When PRiSM launched, we deliberately described it as a broad but shallow tool.
(Editor: Luxury Mixers)