Quarterly Review 1 (2020) Modern Methods of Construction

It is now widely recognised that, in the last decades, the construction industry has failed to achieve a technological evolution in line with most if the other manufacturing industries. This has led to a significant shrinkage in efficiency and profitability that is straining the construction industry and is at the heart of the housing crisis both in terms of delivery and affordability. As highlighted by the report from the UN special rapporteur on adequate housing, despite the economic recovery, adequate and affordable housing is increasingly out of reach to hundreds of millions of people. Today, approximately 900 million people are living in “informal settlements” without the security of tenure – entire communities that have grown up in slum-like conditions. Rates of homelessness are raising even in the richest countries in the world, including Europe and USA. These issues sum up to the critical workforce conditions and workers health and safety that, despite the improvements, make the construction industry among the most (if not the most) unsafe industry,.