RR1203: The impact of Permanent Volumetric Modular Construction (PVMC) on building safety
Permanent Volumetric Modular Construction (PVMC) is an approach to construction where modules are built off-site, transported to site and assembled together to create permanent buildings.
To support the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) in fulfilling its duty to keep under review the safety and standards of all buildings in England, evidence on the in-occupation safety of buildings constructed using PVMC is required. It is important to understand the nature of potential building safety issues in PVMC, their likelihood of occurrence and their consequences.
This report describes an initial review of evidence linked to the building safety of PVMC. Through conducting a literature review, data search and a stakeholder focus group a number of incidents are reported to have occurred in PVMC. No data has been found that can give a reliable representation of the scale of the PVMC market or the likelihood and consequences of potential building safety risks. The evidence to date does not support any conclusions about the relative safety of PVMC versus other construction methods.
The results from this report are to inform the HSE as the BSR and the construction industry of the available evidence. This report also offers a range of potential additional work that could be undertaken, to further evidence any possible building safety risks in relation to PVMC.
This report and the work it describes were funded by the Health and Safety Executive. Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect HSE policy.
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