Designing Net Zero Modular Buildings w/ SCMS Associates [podcast transcript]
Designing Net Zero Modular Buildings w/ SCMS Associates
Stuart Cameron, co-founder of UK-based design firm SCMS Associates, talks about designing net zero modular buildings in and around England ahead of London's goal of being a net zero carbon city by 2030.
Stuart also explains his firm's focus on sustainability and the importance of energy-efficient MEP in modular building design. In addition, he gives advice to design professionals looking to create more sustainable buildings.
John McMullen
Hello and welcome to Inside Modular, the podcast commercial modular construction, brought to you by the Modular Building Institute. Welcome everyone. My name is John McMullen, and I'm the Marketing Director here at MBI. Today I'm talking with Stuart Cameron, Managing Director and Co-Founder of UK-based SCMS Associates. Stuart is here to talk about his firm's work in the modular construction sector, and in particular the importance of sustainability and modular design.
Stuart, thanks for being here.
Stuart Cameron
No problem. Thank you for having me.
John McMullen
So, tell me about yourself, Stuart. What's your background and how did you get involved with building engineering and how did SCMS come to be?
Stuart Cameron
So, I'm currently the Managing Director and MMC lead for SCMS, who myself and a colleague from a previous company, co-founded over half a decade ago now. My background has always been in engineering and construction, having left school—what feels a bit of a lifetime ago now—and going straight into an apprenticeship with a mechanical contracting company in the north of the UK, where I served my time, both on the tools and in the design office, eventually earning my stripes as an installation engineer.
It was from there when I felt I gained enough experience practically, that I was fortunate enough to go to university part time while getting hands on experience at MEP design consultancy, where I managed to get myself a couple of degrees in building services, engineering and sustainability.
From there, I made the decision to move south to the capital, London, which afforded me the opportunity to work on a lot more prestigious schemes, such as the Houses of Parliament, get experience overseas projects in places like Middle East. It was after a number of years working at a larger multidisciplinary organization where, as I say, myself and my colleagues were employed, that we just felt we could do a better job and offer a more tailored non corporate service to our clients. So, we decided to take the plunge, establish SCMS, and we haven't really looked back since.
John McMullen
That's awesome. So, have you guys incorporated modular projects since the beginning or is that something that you've just added?
Stuart Cameron
So ultimately, something we incorporated as a key service in the very early days of SCMS. We recognized that MMC especially was going to be a huge part of the future of the construction industry, not just here in the UK, but worldwide as well. We took the attitude that we'd rather be ahead of the game, rather than playing catch up when it eventually did. So we started very much modularizing our approach and our MEP designs for traditional clients, which then caught the attention of a number of prominent modular suppliers, both here in the UK and Europe, who invited us to assist on prototype works, research and development, the FMA, etc., which eventually snowballed to today where we've established ourselves as the, if not one of the, leading modular MEP consultants, having delivered and worked on a whole range of modular schemes here in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and further afield as well.
John McMullen
Well, that's got to be something to be very proud of. That was a prescient decision you made incorporating that so early.
I know modular right now is booming in the UK, and I know in the UK things are very different than here in the US. I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about those differences, like what types of buildings is the industry in the UK focusing on? What do you know about the differences between the UK sector and the US?
Stuart Cameron
Yeah, sure. So, modular is actually very active here in the UK, in Europe, which is great. There seems to be a lot of buy-in and encouragement from a government level as well to utilize modular moving forward. I think everybody recognizes that the only way to meet our housing shortage in a reasonable timeframe is to utilize modular as well as traditional construction methods, which I can understand. I think it’s a little bit different to what's happening in the US where, obviously, politics can be a little bit more fragmented. There's a huge focus at the minute on housing over here in modular, both affordable and private. This is largely driven by the shortage of both, which is not just unique to the UK, but very much a worldwide critical issue.
I think it was at your conference in April, where somebody mentioned there's a 7 million housing shortfall in the US alone, which just blows my mind a little bit. Where I think we differ from the US as well is, we're very driven by sustainability and net zero as a primary goal. Rather than just delivering meanwhile homes that are affordable to buy, are quick to build. We focus on making an impact on reducing the amount of carbon, reduce the amount of energy used to operate the home, the operating costs to the occupants. That's not just with high performing fabrics, or low air tightness, but the use of low carbon technologies as well, such as air source heat pumps, photovoltaics, LED lighting, and battery storage, etc., etc. From that we have a number of net zero modular schemes here in London, which exceed the 100% carbon reduction target, that is a requirement of net zero.
We have one in particular, which have been nominated for a net zero award at the end of this month, which we've got our fingers crossed for. I also think another area where we differ is that a lot of what's being built, using modular over here is done so in steel, although we do have some schemes where we are utilizing materials such as CLT, SIPS, or glulam. It is actually very rare for anybody to do stick built here.
John McMullen
Thank you for that, I think, a great breakdown of those differences. You mentioned sustainability. That's certainly one of the big differences. I know here, it's becoming more of a priority, but I don't think it's nearly quite as big of a priority as it is in the UK and Europe, but let's talk about SCMS. In particular, how did sustainability become a big focus for you? What was the genesis of that?
Stuart Cameron
So, for us, sustainability is actually one of our core values as a business. We recognize as chartered engineers, we've got a responsibility to engage and educate not only our clients, but our colleagues, families, friends, and hope that with the use of our knowledge, effectively and readily in execution and performance, we will enact change on a global scale. Also, by being headquartered in London, which is probably one of the most sustainably forward planning cities in the world and is leaps and bounds ahead of anywhere else in the UK in terms of targets and requirements, we’re always challenged to be forward thinking and measured and what we can achieve sustainably.
John McMullen
So, are there are there particular goals that SCMS has in regards to sustainable design or other metrics that you use? If so, what are they?
Stuart Cameron
Yeah, so I mean, our first goal is always net zero, which is a buzzword at the minute that's the tip of everybody's tongue these days. As a local authority required here in London itself, and also as a desired target for a lot of private modular developers it's our first step. Now, whenever developing any of our briefs, we're also very conscious of the mayor of London's target for a zero carbon London by 2050. Obviously, the 2015 Paris agreement that the UK signed up to along with 170 other countries, which not entirely sure the US did, with an aim to limit the global average temperature rise to no more than one and a half degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
So, we've always got that at the back of our minds. In terms of metrics, there's quite a few available tools here in the UK. We have a centralized set of building regulations for the entire United Kingdom, which makes it a little bit more simple. We've obviously recently updated those on the 15th of June. We've also got things like BREEAM, LEED. We also have the future home standards, which are due in 2025. LETI, you know, the wealth standard for offices. So, there's many available to us and it all depends on the type of scheme to which one is more suitable for that particular project.
Related Listening:
Integrating Sustainable Practices into Modular Design w/ FK Architecture
In this episode of Inside Modular, Gary Badge and Manny Lamarche of FK Architecture (formerly Fugleberg Koch) return to discuss their efforts to bring sustainable design elements into FK's modular construction projects and talk about the importance of sustainability both inside and outside the construction industry.
John McMullen
So, tell me about some of the projects, modular projects that you guys have designed. You alluded to some a few minutes ago, how was sustainability emphasized? In some of the projects you've done in London, for example.
Stuart Cameron
Yeah, so the majority of our modular project sustainability is actually prioritized, and not just emphasized. So, it's in there as one of the critical items to be established in the same way that a project size or massing would be giving the same amount of importance to sustainability, as you would say, to how a building looks or how many apartments may have for scalability. In one particular case, where we have a rollout of a targeted 2000 modular homes here, which is across numerous sites, our first priority was each and every scheme had to achieve net zero. This is a mix of individual houses and apartment blocks. The big reason behind that is the end user client is a local authority that the London Borough of Greenwich, and part of the Greater London Authority who establishes the targets for achieving net zero. They have to be seen doing it themselves as well as just stipulating a requirement to private developers. In order to do that, we worked with numerous offsite modular manufacturers and issuing a standardized approach was maintained across all of the schemes.
We also took a fabric first approach to minimize things like heat losses, energy usage, heat gains, passive cooling and ventilation, things like that. So, we elected to use fabric details new values, which again exceeded the requirements of the future hold standard, which I mentioned previous and isn't actually due until 2025. We utilize things like high performance triple glazing, ensured we had dual aspect windows to deal with natural cooling and passive vent. Then it's only from there when we start to look at low carbon technologies such as monoblock air source heat pumps, which provide heating and hot water for the dwellings, photovoltaic panels to generate enough electricity to cater for regulated electrical loads mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, and then the right ones such as you know, LED lighting and advanced controls with weather compensation and things like that.
Another place where we've really had to think outside the box is a modular hotel project, which is completely off grid, and not easily accessible from the mainland, because it's on an island in the middle of the North Sea. So, the challenge wasn't just how much carbon we could reduce, but how to actually make the building function without the need for dirty big diesel generators, in the absence of a functioning power grid.
John McMullen
I'd love to see a case study on that. That sounds amazing. What can you tell designers and engineers who have the goal to create more sustainable modular designs? These may be people in the US, as we're becoming more and more forward thinking in our designs. We're lagging behind the UK, I'm sure. What can you tell these designers and engineers that might help them create more sustainable designs? What goals should they be setting?
Stuart Cameron
So, when we look at sustainability, we obviously we don't just see it as a measured target of a reduction of something, we also see as a better way to manage and undertake designs to ensure that it’s installed in a more sustainable way. We're talking all the way through to minimizing waste in the factories and on site, ensuring as much as completed within the factory as possible thereby reducing the frequency of vehicles to site and the number of journeys that equipment is making before it's eventually used by the occupant.
We would like to see as a first goal and step in the right direction, that MEP is actually one of the first priorities when it comes to modular designs, and not just by selecting a super-efficient air source, heat pump or split unit that has a CLP and five plus and then throwing in some pipe work as an afterthought, but actually looking at how MEP will communicate with both the structural and architectural elements of the modules it serves. I think if you take that first step, then the rest should be pretty easy to follow, and it won't seem such a radical change from what's currently being done. Now.
John McMullen
You mentioned MEP a lot there. You anticipated my next question. I know that besides sustainability SCMS puts a great deal of effort into its MEP design, what can you tell me about that and the interrelation between MEP and sustainability?
Stuart Cameron
So obviously, MEP design is super important to us. It's not just a core service of ours, but essentially our bread and butter. We feel it's critical to ensure our fundamentals are refined and we strive to deliver excellence with success in mind, always aiming high for our clients as ultimately, we're accountable to challenge and innovate preconceptions for economic growth and sustainability. There's two ways we've really focused in on how our MEP design can be more efficient and sustainable.
Firstly, that's by our adoption of BIM. So, we made a business plan decision back in 2018 that every design we undertake will be managed and coordinated under the principles of BIM at no extra cost to our clients, as it's become a primary method of delivery, not just something special we do every three months. So, every design project is coordinated, and clash detected in the 3D digital environment long before it goes to a factory for onsite construction. This is an area we're quite proud of actually. Recently, our fantastic BIM Team have just secured our ISO 19 650 accreditation for the practice, which is industry recognized for full BIM compliance. I believe we're one of the first dedicated MEP consultancy practices to have this in the UK. So, we're pretty happy with that.
The overall area we're putting a lot of effort into is how the MEP elements are installed, by the way in which we design them. For example, one of the biggest areas of error in the construction industry is unfortunately human and there's no getting around that. We need people to build and install and we're all susceptible to making mistakes. We're only human. However, we've taken a lot of inspiration from the car manufacturing industry and how they not only build cars but fit them out as well. A good example of this is when you see a dashboard being fitted into a car, it's not by a person coming in with a tape measure and then cutting something to size and then click into place and adding the ancillary such as speedometer and fuel gauge, but they come as a pre-assembled product. They come as 1000 pre-assembled products. And lo and behold, every BMW that comes off the line looks and has the exact same dashboard as the car before it.
Obviously, there are other car manufacturers available, of course, but we want to take the same principles in our designs and make MEP more of a product than an install. We do that via taking the dashboard approach and we create models for every piece of assemblies that can be manufactured offsite, somewhere in there hundreds and 1000s and then brought to a factory or a site and be simply connected into place, saving time, money, materials, while also prioritizing sustainability, quality and the modular element.
John McMullen
That's really cool that you brought up the car manufacturing. I know a lot of our members here in the states have taken a similar inspiration looking at how Toyota manufactures, how different car manufacturers around the world put together their products, and that seems to be a recurring theme. I think there's huge potential there. I'm excited to hear that you guys have embraced that.
So, tell me about the rest of your year. You've done all these amazing projects. Tell me about what's on tap for you for the rest of the year, maybe next year? What projects are you working on at the moment?
Stuart Cameron
So, as I mentioned, we've just finalized our designs for this off grid hotel, which the island where that's going to sit is a famous bird watching island off the north coast of Scotland. That's now moving into fabrication and should be built by October hopefully. Otherwise, the island becomes very difficult to reach due to weather. We're quite all excited to see that one come to fruition. As I say it's a unique project, which there's not many of in the world.
We're also three years into a delivery framework, which is I think 10 years extendable to 13 for the Royal Borough of Greenwich here in London, which at the minute is the largest modular affordable housing scheme in the UK, where we've got several schemes at various stages, whether that be design, construction, or handover. On the horizon, we've got several schemes we're hoping we'll get the green light, such as a modular hotel we are hoping to collaborate on with another Modular Building Institute member over in Vancouver, Canada. We're also hoping to get involved in our first modular project in California in the US, which is also a hotel project.
We're also involved in a 300 plus residential unit scheme in Cardiff, Wales, which is currently in for planning at the minute, and we're hoping that we'll get approval any day now. We've also got a plan to take what we know and have learned in the residential hotel student markets to the commercial market. So more so in the office fit out scene to see if we can enact the same amount of change and efficiency in that sector using modulars we have done in the office.
John McMullen
Sounds like very full slate. One more question for you. I like to ask this of people. Look, you've told me about the rest of your year, you've got a lot going on. What about the next five or 10? Not just in terms of your projects in particular, but what do you think the industry is headed towards in five to 10 years and we can keep it to the UK because that's where you are and what you know. Where do you see the modular construction industry in the UK in five to 10 years?
Stuart Cameron
I would like to see it almost on par with the traditional industry as something that's recognized and embraced as a regular construction method. At the minute here, and everywhere else, there's still a small amount of fear when it comes to modular because it was built in a factory. I would say the one thing that's lagging is the contracts out there for it yet. So, it was really difficult for the modular builders to really get a good momentum going.
I would like to see it become the regular or irregular, go to construction method where people are comfortable with fire risk, and getting mortgages and things like this on modular properties. At the minute, a lot of modular buildings that are built go up, they're fantastic, and then people put bricks in front of them to make them look like a traditional building, to hide the fact that it's modular. Whereas I'd rather embrace the fact it's modular units, a new technique well it’s not new. It's been around for a couple of 100 years. Since we were shipping prisoners off to Australia in the 18th century when we put the houses on the books, but it's relatively new to, I guess, the post war population. I'd like to see it embraced in the same way that bricks have been embraced.
John McMullen
Well, thank you for that. I appreciate it.
I know it's early yet, but you guys mentioned being at World of Modular in April, we were so glad you were there. I hope it was a great experience for you. I was wondering if we could look forward to seeing you in 2023?
Stuart Cameron
It was a fantastic experience, and we will absolutely be back for 2023 providing, there's no more travel restrictions back into play.
John McMullen
Don't jinx it! There's going to be no travel restrictions!
Stuart Cameron
One of my most favorite places on the planet is Vegas, so I’m equally looking forward to that. So much so that we're hoping to be able to host a talk in one of the breakout sessions, just like some of the great speakers did back in San Antonio.
John McMullen
That would be great. That'd be great. Yeah, just let us know. We'd love to have you that would be fantastic. Thank you, Stuart. Thanks. I know you guys are new members. Thank you for joining, for attending World of Modular, I really look forward to seeing you guys in Las Vegas next March.
Stuart Cameron
Great. Thanks for having me, John.
John McMullen
My name is John McMullen, and this has been another episode of Inside Modular the Podcast of Commercial Modular Construction. Until next time.