About 100 Factories
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A scalable, sustainable vision
100 Factories: A New Approach to Sustainable Homebuilding
The 100 Factories project is breaking new ground in the UK construction sector. The aim of this research is to build the necessary digital and productive infrastructures to empower a distributed supply chain of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The test case for this is the open-source WikiHouse building system, a modular timber building kit that can be manufactured in small workshops from sustainable materials and assembled by local teams. The core mission is clear: to increase the use and traceability of locally sourced timber in the construction market and speed up the UK’s shift to circular, zero-carbon building practices.
As timber-based Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) increasingly become a part of the building industry’s future, there’s a significant shortfall when it comes to skilled workers, production facilities, and supply chains that can help push those practices forward. The construction workforce has fallen by 250,000 since 2019, and SME’s constitute 98% of the sector. Current MMC innovations have primarily focused on CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) and volumetric 3D systems, all of which are typically manufactured in large, centralised factories. While this approach can bring benefits, it also comes with significant financial risks, dependency on highly specialised labor, and large-scale estate investments of £50-100m per site. The 100 Factories project takes a different approach — one that decentralises and localises the manufacturing process.
The aim of this research is to build the necessary digital and productive infrastructures to empower a distributed supply chain of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The test case for this is the open-source WikiHouse building system, a modular timber building kit that can be manufactured in small workshops from sustainable materials and assembled by local teams. The core mission is clear: to increase the use and traceability of locally sourced timber in the construction market and speed up the UK’s shift to circular, zero-carbon building practices.
However, one significant gap still exists in the innovation landscape: the lack of a circular production control system tailored to distributed manufacturing - how can different SMEs produce components with similar standards, and how to track what is produced, and where. There is a need for an underlying data ecosystem to facilitate this industrial transition.
The 100 Factories project tackles this gap by developing a ‘material passport’ system and a common digital platform for WikiHouse manufacturing standards and data. In doing so, we expect to enable SMEs to be able to communicate, coordinate, manage, and share data to establish distributed manufacturing networks.
Over the course of this research these innovations have been codeveloped with a wide network of industry partners, and tested at two key locations: WoodLab in Devon and Maahee’s in the Midlands. The University of Plymouth is providing essential research support, in collaboration with local authorities and community housing organisations, to embed digital fabrication skills in communities that typically lack access to such expertise.
Ultimately, this project is more than just about timber or buildings. It’s about addressing the UK’s housing shortage while meeting the legal commitments to reach zero-carbon targets by 2050. It directly aligns with the UK’s Timber in Construction Roadmap 2025 priorities: improving data on timber and whole-life carbon, increasing skills and competency across the supply chain, and promoting innovative, high-performance timber construction systems. It is estimated, on the basis of data reported during this project, that collectively SME manufacturers operating across 100 factories can produce 1,200 houses per year, with an upfront carbon reduction of 31,200 tCO2e, compared with traditional construction.
“The single centralised factory model does not work when there is underutilisation. The recent market dynamics have shown that Category 1 modular volumetric home producers are facing challenges in securing sufficient throughput to maximise the efficiency of extensive fixed overheads, leading to several firms going into administration or making significant redundancies.”
Cast Consultancy.
From ‘One Hundred Factories:
Unlocking the collective capacity of local MMC manufacturers’
April 2024
Meet the Team
