ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 22

1. Introduction
During the last few decades, the Iranian Government has adopted various plans and strategies
to improve the housing conditions in Iran. Some of these plans have been successful and some
have failed dramatically deteriorating the housing conditions. It is estimated that over one million
residential units are currently required to be constructed annually (BHRC 2009) to answer the current demand. The current housing output should almost be doubled (Hashemi and Hadjri 2014)
in order to answer the demand during the next 15 years. This is by far beyond the current capacity
of the Iranian housing industry. For this and many other reasons, Industrialisation and Modern
Methods of Construction (MMC) have been suggested as effective ways to increase the housing
output in Iran (Hashemi 2015).
MMC can be classified under five main building methods of: 1) volumetric systems; 2) panel systems; 3) hybrid systems; 4) sub-assemblies and components; and 5) site-based methods (Ross et
al. 2006). MMC have several claimed advantages over traditional methods of construction such as
higher speed of construction; improved quality and health and safety; addressing skilled labour
shortages; minimising material waste; enhancing value for money invested; and cost predictability (Buildoffsite 2013; Myers 2013; Miles and Whitehouse 2013).
Such potential advantages of MMC over traditional methods of construction have encouraged
the Iranian and UK governments to promote MMC with the intention to improve the housing
outputs as well as the quality and energy efficiency requirements. Yet, despite governmental supports and incentives, the share of industrialised methods in Iran has remained considerably lower
than expected. In 2008, for instance, the share of industrialised construction methods was less
than 3% of (Fatemi Aghda 2008). Several reasons such as small scale of projects, costs and limited
knowledge of stakeholders about advantages and risks of such methods have been suggested
for the limited application of industrialised construction methods and the failure of previous attempts in Iran (Hashemi 2014; Hashemi 2015).
When considering the transferability of MMC to Iran, some additional criteria are involved; some
are desirable, some absolute; some controllable, some uncontrollable; some measurable and
some immeasurable. Some areas are of particular importance in the Iranian context as follows:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Demand and supply
Practicality
Costs
Energy efficiency and waste reductions
Regulations and standards

In the following sections, these criteria are examined and key differences between the Iranian
and UK conditions, potentials, and limitations are discussed in detail. The aim is to evaluate the
opportunities and difficulties facing MMC if transferred to Iran.

Research Methodology
The methodology of this paper is direct comparison between the Iranian and UK construction industries. It is aimed to identify and then evaluate the risks, barriers and opportunities if MMC were
to be applied in large industrial scales Iran. Relevant documents in English and Farsi languages

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ZEMCH 2015 | International Conference | Bari - Lecce, Italy