Muhammad Ilham Widiyantoko

A guiding framework to enable Modular Integrated Construction’s (MiC) circularity potential

The construction industry is widely recognised as a vital driver of economic development, urbanisation, and society’s well-being. However, in the United Kingdom, the sector has long faced deeply embedded challenges that have not only limited efficiency and quality but also significantly increased its environmental impact. Modular Integrated Construction (MiC), widely seen as a potential disruptor, shifts the manufacturing of components into controlled factory settings, offering multiple performance benefits and sustainability opportunities, especially in advancing Circular Economy (CE) principles through its End of Life (EoL) potential. Nevertheless, these benefits are not yet fully realised at scale due to limited guidance and industry knowledge. Without a coordinated redesign around circularity, this gap hinders MiC’s EoL opportunities, leading to missed and lower value than conventional methods.

Through literature review, project and sectoral case analysis, and semi-structured interviews, this research aims to bridge the theoretical and practical aspects of MiC, providing the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the method's current and emerging state. Then, deductive thematic coding will be applied to identify its potential contribution to sustainability.

Following this, two circular-oriented frameworks (Circular Strategies Scanner and Circularity Compass) will map the data into a circular-focused analysis. The result from the Circular Strategies Scanner suggests that Service-as-an-Outcome Models remain nascent in a market with low maturity and limited provider availability. While the concept of material and operational efficiency is well understood, the circular potential of MiC is still undermined by supply chain immaturity and longevity uncertainty. The Circularity Compass highlights the importance of the early loop closure to mitigate waste and maximise lifecycle value. Extending the loop and transforming between resource states will result in additional energy-intensive processes, as well as collaboration, technology, and incentives. These findings reveal something about the nature of the two main approaches to enable circularity in MiC: planning and design for circularity. Planning for circularity addresses externalities by supporting the MiC method, while designing for circularity involves the internalities of MiC products. The insights from this analysis will be used to propose a framework to properly plan and design MiC-based solutions, encompassing typical project life cycle dimensions and stakeholders’ interaction within the system to enable MiC’s EoL potential.