Modern Methods of Construction hold the key to accelerating Ireland’s housing delivery, yet regulatory and durability hurdles remain. COLM MCHUGH, Centre Manager, Construct Innovate, outlines two Centre transformative research projects—STANDARDIZE and a new durability study—designed to break down these barriers by streamlining certification for Light Gauge Steel and aligning façade standards with international best practices.
Two ongoing Construct Innovate research projects aim to boost Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) adoption for housing by addressing critical barriers: the 60-year durability requirement for façades and the development of a complete set of building regulation-compliant standards.
Construct Innovate, Ireland’s National Construction Technology Centre, has two new programmes that aim to address some of the barriers faced by MMC methodologies for housing in Ireland. One will look to present alternative solutions that will address the requirement for a 60-year design life of external cladding on houses based on best international practice. The other will create a set of standardised residential construction details for Light Gauge Steel (LGS) panelised systems that will comply with Irish Building Regulations. These construction details will be similar to existing Part L acceptable construction details or supplementary guidance to the technical guidance documents. The construction details will enable wider adoption of MMC and the potential for significantly less testing and lower costs to navigate NSAI Agrément certification for building systems.
When completed, the programmes will create opportunities for a broader mix of MMC systems.
Durability of off-site systems
The Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage require a guaranteed 60-year design life of external cladding, which is more stringent than other jurisdictions.
Dr Daniel McCrum, Associate Professor, UCD, will be the Project Lead on Construct Innovate’s certification and durability of innovative building systems project, in collaboration with Construct Innovate industry members, Glenveagh and Cairn Homes.
They will be looking to better understand Ireland’s approach to building façade durability, how other countries view it, and how to align Irish requirements with the best standard of international practice to bring innovative systems to market. With funding approval for this work in place, the project commenced in late 2025.
STANDARDIZE: Creation of open-access and building regulation-compliant standardised construction details for residential MMC
Funded by the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment, Construct Innovate’s ‘STANDARDIZE: Creation of open-access and Building Regulationcompliant standardised construction details for residential MMC’ project aims to support continuity of residential MMC from design through to construction. This project was brought to Construct Innovate by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
STANDARDIZE is led by Dr McCrum and co-led by Dr Magda Hajdukiewicz, Co- Director of Construct Innovate, University of Galway, and Dr Eoin King, Programme irish construction news 39 January/February 2026 University of Galway.
This project will:
– Identify industry needs for standardised construction details for MMC
– Identify the standard construction details and performance requirements for one type of MMC.
Based on industry engagement over the course of 2025, in September, Light Gauge Steel (LGS) was chosen as the system of focus as part of this project. Since then, the project has brought together manufacturers, contractors, designers, building control, representative bodies, etc from LGS category 2 MMC to understand the existing construction details common to Agrément certificates and how they can be shared
Based on a gap analysis from the existing NSAI Agrément certificates, the project consortium will experimentally test the required details according to EN standards • Produce open source standardised construction details for LGS similar to supplementary Guidance to TGDs or ACDs.
From Agrément Certification to LGS standardisation
Currently, all off-site construction systems in Ireland, except for timber frame, which is compliant with ISO 440 Timber Frame Dwellings, undergo a rigorous NSAI Agrément certification process. Certification is granted based on the exact material composition and build-up of the system, from the innermost to the outermost layer.
MMC has been shown to speed up delivery, reduce waste, reduce embodied carbon, whilst improving sustainability and circularity. STANDARDIZE aims to create open-access, Building-Regulation-compliant standardised design details for one type of residential MMC, namely LGS.
The skills gap: A demographic time bomb
The push for MMC is not just about efficiency; it is a necessity driven by a shrinking workforce.
Paul Tierney highlights a sobering statistic from the UK, which shares a similar demographic profile to Ireland: for every seven people leaving the construction industry, only one is joining.
“Unless we embrace manufacturing and new ways to build, we’re going to run into a roadblock where we just don’t have the people to build what we need,” he warns.
This is where the BIM (Building Information Modelling) gap becomes critical.
He expresses his surprise at how far Ireland has lagged behind the UK in BIM adoption. “While the UK mandated BIM Level 2 for government contracts in 2016, Ireland has only now moved toward mandatory implementation. Catching up is essential for SMEs to remain competitive and for MMC to become ‘mainstream construction’ rather than a niche sector.”
Methodologies
Having selected LGS as the system of focus for this project, the collection and mapping of existing Agrément common junctions, build-ups, etc, has begun and will continue through 2026, before an initial set of details is arrived at that meet building regulations and can be produced by manufacturers. These details will be converted into acceptable construction details that will include standard construction junctions: Wall to floor, wall to ceiling, party wall, etc, and the key junctions in a typical residential construction design. This process will highlight what additional details are missing and needed to create a more comprehensive set of construction details.
Testing and verification
The next, and more complex, stage will be testing and verification of the additional missing details to demonstrate compliance with Irish Building Regulations. This will include testing and modelling structure, fire, thermal, acoustic, and durability performance of standardised details/ build-ups. The test results and standardised construction details will then be made open source to support the wider adoption of LGS MMC in the Irish construction sector.
The NSAI will in the near future start a technical committee on LGS residential construction and will be looking for experts to join this committee.
Collaboration with industry
The sector will be at the heart of this process, with a series of industry workshops to follow the completion of work on the standard details. Early workshops have garnered significant interest and input from MMC manufacturers, who understand the challenges better than anyone. The LGS sector has shown significant interest in using this project as a stepping stone to develop an Irish standard for LGS MMC residential construction, similar to the one that exists for timber frame.
Outcomes
A successful outcome will be viewed as one where there is a thriving off-site manufacturing sector that is contributing significantly across the board to meeting Ireland’s housing targets, creating high-skilled jobs, and building homes that are energy-efficient and sustainable and a future where developers, regulators, and the public have complete confidence in the quality and safety of these systems.
To learn more about the latest work being carried out by Construct Innovate, Ireland’s National Research Centre for Construction Technology and Innovation, visit https://constructinnovate.ie/