Industrialized construction: transforming the way we build

Industrialized construction (IC) is about better products and processes through increased robotization and automation with off-site manufacturing of components to be transported and assembled on site. FPInnovations initiated a multi-year research program to identify and prioritize major Canadian research focus areas to position wood as the preferred material as construction shifts offsite and into factories.

FPInnovations and its partners first developed a research roadmap to explore, test, and deploy innovative products, technologies, tools, processes, and practices to enable the transformation of Canadian building industry towards low-carbon, industrialized construction (prefabricated off-site construction). It was built upon a series of foundational technical studies identified through consideration of the key drivers. The goal for FPInnovations is to help position Canada as a leader in deploying innovative forest products and building systems for light wood frame (LWF) and mass timber (MT) constructions.

The research on industrialization of the wood construction is done along the entire value chain by considering the full potential of the wood. The focus is to protect and expand the North American light wood frame market in the shift to offsite construction by modifying the solid wood and engineered wood product (EWP) mix to align with factory production, working with equipment suppliers to build in flexibility for North American products, and optimizing modular and panelized design for energy efficiency, low-cost, buildability, durability, sound, vibration, and deconstruction.

Consult An Overview of FPInnovations’ Industrialized Construction Program In 2019-2020

Since the publication of the roadmap in 2020, various publications have been published under the four main research themes:

Market

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Products

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Processes

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Performance

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