MMC

Residential design usually begins with a document called a “brief.” It lists rooms, areas, functions, and stylistic preferences. It appears clear. Yet a residential brief is rarely a clear problem statement. More often, it is a projection of desire. And desire does not remain pure. It carries conflicting expectations between husband and wife. It is compounded by approving officers interpreting the same policy in different ways. It can conceal the designer’s blind spots around cost and buildability. It also inherits market habits and entrenched assumptions.

Victoria’s MMC Statement is a meaningful step. It positions MMC as a practical lever for Australia’s housing challenge: faster delivery, higher quality, stronger cost certainty, and lower carbon. It also signals intent across regulation, approvals, skills and government procurement. But if the goal is scale, the Statement still reads more like a “policy toolkit” than a repeatable operating model. Some pilots struggle to replicate and spread—not because the methods themselves have failed, but because the supporting compliance pathways, delivery mechanisms, and verifiable evidence remain highly project-specific. Transaction costs stay high, lessons don’t compound, and the sector struggles to enter a self-reinforcing cycle of iteration.

 When we talk about prefab housing, a common fear arises: “Won’t standardisation make everything look the same?” This fear confuses standardisation with sameness. A well-designed system doesn’t constrain creativity – it can actually liberate it. Consider the classical Chinese garden: a world of whimsical charm and deep artistry, where no two gardens are alike. Far more than a mere outdoor space, it was a personal universe: a library for the scholar, a studio for the artist, a quiet retreat for meditation, and a gracious setting for hosting friends, enjoying music, and staging opera. Most importantly, it was a world in miniature, crafted by its owner to be a spiritual haven. In essence, designing such a garden was akin to designing a complete, contemporary dream house.

Picture this: you’re transported 600 years back to 15th-century China. The emperor, hearing of your unparalleled skill as a builder, summons you to build his new palace. The emperor’s top priority? How soon he can move in. The scope of the palace is quite ambitious: it covers 8,700 halls and rooms of all sizes. The footprint of the buildings alone, excluding gardens and plazas, is equivalent to 15 soccer fields.