Housing developer’s use of demonstration projects to trial and roll out off-site production

In many countries and firms, the promotion of green building has started with demonstration projects. The aim of these projects is to provide a niche where firms and businesses can develop new ways of working, free from regular commercial constraints. In most cases, they are accompanied by above formal criteria, both with regards to process and product. These constraints are designed both to support and encourage innovation and to achieve broader societal goals which regular commercial incentives currently fail to address. Whereas most research focuses on government sponsored competitions, the proposed research will focus on firm level initiatives. More specifically, the proposed research will explore the way in which housing developers use demonstration projects to trial new types of building structure and the move from project to firm level roll out. Theoretical issues include the relation between standards and innovation and the diffusion of innovation beyond the demonstration project, either to other projects in the same firm, across firms and across the sector.
The research will combine knowledge of construction processes with qualitative research methods. There is an opportunity for cross case and comparative analysis.