The construction industry plays a significant and indispensable role in striving towards a more sustainable future of the built environment. Yet over the recent decades, the global construction industry has experienced persistently low productivity growth, accompanied by a shortage of skilled labour, an ageing workforce, cost escalation, and increasing environmental burdens across the project lifecycle. These long-standing issues demand an urgent need for a transformative change of conventional construction practices.
Modular construction (MC) has emerged as a promising response to this call for change. By transforming fragmented site-based activities into integrated value-driven production and assembly of prefinished modules, MC introduces standardised manufacturing, parallel workflows, and lifecycle integration. It revitalises the industry with new opportunities to realise enhanced quality, productivity, safety, and sustainability. Today, MC has been adopted globally, such as in the UK, the US, Canada, Germany, Australia, Singapore, and Mainland China, with well demonstrated benefits in quality, productivity, safety, and sustainability.
In Hong Kong, the MiCLab at The University of Hong Kong, in collaboration with the Development Bureau of the HKSAR Government, has pioneered the concept and implementation of Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) in 2017. Since then, MiC has been featured in the HKSAR Chief Executive’s Policy Address for ten consecutive years, as a key strategy for enhancing construction productivity and competitiveness and improving the speed, quantity, efficiency, and quality of housing development. To date, MiC has been adopted in over 150 building projects in Hong Kong, covering various types of development in both public and private sectors.
Despite the significant benefits from adopting the MC/MiC approach, multifaceted challenges co-exist. Continuous efforts are necessary to expand the technical frontiers and foster sustained innovation. An effective global mechanism for information exchange and knowledge sharing is still lacking, hampering collective learning and accumulation of best practices. Deeper engagement and understanding from policymakers are also needed. Accordingly, addressing these challenges calls for a shared global platform and an open ecosystem that can unite the community to excel.
The International Association for Modular Construction (IAMC) was established in June 2025 at The University of Hong Kong as a global not-for-profit organisation dedicated to advancing the field of MC. Hosted under the support of an international association of academic, industry, and government partners, IAMC aims to foster innovation and excellence in modular construction practices. I warmly invite you to join us for developing a smart, sustainable and resilient built environment through continuously expanding the knowledge boundaries of modular construction.
