Duncan Maxwell

• PhD
• Senior Lecturer at Monash University (Australia)

This study examines the renewed interest in Industrialised Building (IB) adoption in Australia amid the housing crisis, addressing the gap between potential and implementation. Drawing on a systematic review of 171 peer-reviewed articles (1998–2024), we examine how the interplay between micro-level decision-making, meso-level organisational routine...

The Circular Economy (CE) approach to the built environment gathers growing interest from scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. However, there needs to be more clarity and consensus on the concept formulation, principles, strategies, and actions that define CE in building. The lack of conceptual clarity hinders progress in the field. This pape...

This paper explores carpentry students' perceptions of integrating Mixed Reality (MR) and construction component tracking technologies within carpentry and assembly processes using the Twinbuild MR tool. Employing a case study approach, the research focused on the real-time assembly of a complex timber pavilion to demonstrate these technologies' pr...

This paper describes the development of a modular timber evaporative cooling unit (ECU) possessing a complex dendritic formal quality, presented as a case study, and uses the findings to propose a conceptual prototyping model for the built environment. The case study project leverages computational design methods for design detailing and material o...

The establishment of Construction Hubs is pivotal to catalyzing regional development, providing avenues for economic growth and job creation, and supporting expanding populations. Despite their significance, a comprehensive framework for systematically evaluating these hubs remains absent in scholarly and industry dialogues. This paper aims to brid...

Regenerative design (RD) is an approach to creating positive change in the built environment rather than reducing its negative impacts. RD focuses its design work on improving the relationship between humans, places, and ecosystems. It also proposes fundamental paradigm shifts that promise to address the urgent climatic and biodiversity crises. Whi...

Modularization and standardization have been recognized as an effective way to achieve mass customization and improve efficiency in the house-building industry. The construction industry has witnessed the entry of several bathpod manufacturers using new, digitally enabled business models to alter the traditionally incremental nature of off-site con...

The report explores the transformative impact of Industry 4.0 on the Australian building industry, emphasizing the implementation of key principles and technologies. Industry 4.0, characterized by the integration of advanced technologies like IoT, cloud computing, AI, robotics, and automation, holds the potential to enhance sustainability, efficien...

Purpose In the realm of construction education, the investigation of immersive learning and extended reality (XR) technologies has experienced a surge in recent times. Nevertheless, there remains a notable lack of comprehension surrounding the most efficient ways to integrate these technologies into tailored teaching approaches for vocational const...

The critical path coordinates and supports construction planning and execution, and defines the prioritisation and interdependence of tasks. The resulting build program establishes a timeline, informed by the production modes, plans and management practices. New building production systems and planning arrangements have only partially resulted in a...

The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the current state of Industry 4.0 (IR 4.0) with regard to construction in Australia and to identify the key factors that are driving and hindering its adoption. A literature review and desktop review were conducted to extract mainstream topics, followed by a two-folded workshop designed with a mult...

The productivity of the construction industry has lagged behind other sectors for decades, hindered by the linear and fragmented processes of traditional building activities (Aitchison et al., 2018). Among the main causes of such fragmentation is the one-off project-based approach of traditional construction that isolates the design and the constru...

A business model represents an organisation’s value logic with a value proposition as the central dimension. The construction industry has been categorised as fragmented, slow to move and destructively competitive, idealising only cost-based perceptions of performance; however, recent trends indicate a paradigm shift in the sector emphasising value...

The transition towards a platform approach is emerging as a compelling alternative that could instigate a new industry evolution and generate a virtuous cycle for all stakeholders involved. To better understand this opportunity, Building 4.0 CRC conducted business model innovation workshops with industry stakeholders across four Australian cities—A...

The report aims to highlight the transformative implications of Industry 4.0 for the Australian building industry. Implementation of key principles and technologies are summarised along with an action plan and roadmap for the building industry. Industry 4.0 involves integrating advanced technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computin...

The built environment is hindered by issues relating to laggard productivity, with practitioners looking to pursue sector-wide industrialisation and digitisation to improve this issue. Contrastingly, industries that have achieved widespread industrialisation and digitisation also possess developed prototyping cultures. Within these industries, prot...

In recent years, 'platform' has emerged as a buzzword for business. Despite widespread usage, there remains ambiguity in its meaning. Strategically, platforms capitalize on the advantages of commonality and have been successfully applied across multiple industries to deliver mass-customized products, increasing customer choice while maintaining eff...

As the building industry is a significant contributor to Australia's economy, understanding the impact of Industry 4.0 on this sector is crucial for its continued growth and competitiveness. This creates a need to explore the interdependencies between the implementation of an industrial and digitally enabled building industry and business model and...

Construction practice is rooted in project-based thinking as organisations use temporary teams to create one-off products in response to unique and changeable site conditions. As a result, product platforms have begun to emerge in construction. However, the introduction of broader, platform-based business models promises fundamental and holistic c...

The global sustainability movement has developed a variety of new design and building methodologies. Regenerative Design (RD) focuses on understanding the dynamic relationship between people, a place and ecosystems. By weaving together the natural and social systems, RD maximises humans' and nature's creativeness and abundance. Projects are not see...

The coordination process plays a vital role in construction projects during the design phase when interferences and clashes between design systems are identified to reduce the risk of costly reworks. Despite the fact that coordination has been studied commonly in BIM research, limited research has explored the impact of virtual reality (VR) to unde...

Purpose The construction industry has actively attempted to tackle the low-productivity issues arising from inefficient construction planning. It is imperative to understand how construction practitioners perceive technology integration in construction planning in light of emerging technologies. This study intended to uncover unique experimental fi...

The potential benefits of volumetric construction include faster builds, improved quality, and reduction in waste. However, increased transportation costs, structural redundancy, and increased overheads can dilute these benefits, limiting their uptake. Within the Australian construction industry, the bathroom pod is one of the few volumetric assem...

The construction industry has benefited from the recent methodological advancements in Computational Design (CD) and its associated technological developments. However, the multifaceted challenges faced by the construction industry have limited its capacity to achieve global sustainability goals. In this context, Industrialized Building (IB) has op...

As the construction industry shifts towards more systematised methods of designing and delivering buildings, data-informed approaches towards product development, evaluation, and selection promise to enable improved performance (structural, acoustic, fire, environmental), material efficiencies, and ease of production while maintaining the highest q...

The construction industry has benefited from the recent methodological advancements in Computational Design (CD) and its associated technological developments. However, the multifaceted challenges faced by the construction industry have limited its capacity to achieve global sustainability goals. In this context, Industrialized Building (IB) has op...

Purpose Construction suffers from “peculiarities” that concern the temporary natures of the construction site, project teams and unique product design. Considering the digital transformation of construction, new solutions are being investigated that can provide consistent data between changing projects. One such source of data manifests in the trac...

This 6-month research project aimed to understand: the current state of Lean and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) knowledge within construction; their degree of implementation in both the local construction industry and abroad; and the implementation challenges that need to be addressed if we are to see broader uptake. To address these p...

The construction industry has actively attempted to tackle the low-productivity issues arising from inefficient construction planning. With new emerging technologies, there is a need to comprehend how construction practitioners perceive the functionality of technology integration in construction planning. This study intended to uncover unique exper...

Accurate and timely information about construction processes is essential to provide greater visibility and understanding of project progress and therefore deliver the projects on time and on budget. This project has made significant advances in the knowledge and practice of acquiring and managing real-time operation data. More specific objectives...

The purpose of this research is to explore logistics strategies in construction. There are very few studies on logistics and SCM practices in construction, especially when it comes to the long-term strategic work of construction companies. Therefore, this research takes a contractor’s perspective and addresses logistics strategy based on the empiri...

Construction Logistics has recently emerged as an important consideration for Industrialized House Building (IHB). Previous research has demonstrated that construction logistics improves IHB through: the clarification of interfaces along the supply chain; increased supply chain efficiency; more productive construction sites; the transfer of value-a...

The term ‘industrialised construction’ carries the promise of an industry transformed, an industry driven by improved processes and higher quality products. One of the more obvious differences between industrialised construction and traditional construction is the factory. Yet it is often undervalued as a secondary consideration to the seemingly mo...

There is a global interest in large-scale construction and development companies in the application of Product Platforms to achieve a repeatable industrialized house-building system. This paper analyzes and evaluates several Product Platform aspects-modularity, commonality, scalability, resilience, adaptability, flexibility-in light of the particul...

Lean production has responded to low-level customisation, but for residential construction, earlier customer input is required. The development of the ‘platform approach’ to industrialised house building has enabled high-level mass-customisation. Focus has been applied to ‘hard’ improvements regarding production efficiency, with less emphasis on ‘s...

This paper describes the platform concept which has been specifically developed for industrialised construction in Sweden. The paper outlines the concept and discusses its development. Conclusions are drawn from the range of Swedish research projects, to present key findings which are summarised and discussed for implementation by industry in an on...

Over the past decade, Australia has witnessed increased interest in industrialised building, particularly in the production of housing. This has happened under many different banners, including: prefabricated, modular, transportable and offsite construction methodologies. This interest has grown from a combination of factors, including: increased r...

Over the past decade, Australia has witnessed increased interest in industrialised building, particularly in the production of housing. This has happened under many different banners, including: prefabricated, modular, transportable and offsite construction methodologies. This interest has grown from a combination of factors, including: increased r...

Contemporary architectural programming, as a holistic process rather than static document, is utilised for effective communication, control and evaluation of design proposals across the whole construction project cycle. Designing for prefabrication benefits from planning and control of processes, with a strong client focus, and established relation...