Guest Editorial

Abstract

This Special Issue of Architectural Engineering and Design Management invited critical debate and discourse on offsite construction with a particular focus on strategic challenges and opportunities. The offsite market is continuing to grow, with firm evidence suggesting that this trajectory is likely to continue to expand in line with increased demand. Production, manufacturing and assembly markets are now delivering conjoined synergies to support offsite. However, there is still a real need to evaluate a number of conjoined factors, including: the impact of process and business changes in design/construction/manufacturing; how new and emerging ICT solutions underpin processes to deliver integrated solutions; the impact of socio-economic drivers, including the delivery of evidence-based cost and value streams; and finally (and some might argue more importantly), the need to understand, develop and embed new skills and understanding into the offsite supply chain. These issues are certainly challenging, but are not insurmountable. This Special Issue presents additional knowledge and understanding on ‘Offsite Construction: Strategic Challenges and New Opportunities’ through 10 original and novel papers.