In a series celebrating the Building Awards finalists, we look at the MMC Award shortlist
Earlier this year Building announced the names of all the firms that made it onto the shortlists for our prestigious annual Building Awards.
Now we are shining the spotlight on each category in turn and publishing a selection of the images that impressed the judges.
Today’s shortlist is for the MMC Award.
Cross Keys Homes (with Drees & Sommer UK and Willmott Dixon) – Indigo development, Peterborough
The Indigo development in Peterborough is a landmark housing scheme that redefines affordable urban living while showcasing the potential of modern methods of construction. Delivered by Cross Keys Homes with partners Drees & Sommer UK and Willmott Dixon, the £70m project provides 315 high-quality homes on a former brownfield site in the city centre.
MMC was central to Indigo’s delivery. Offsite manufacturing, light-gauge steel framing and modular techniques reduced build time by up to 30%, improved quality and minimised waste.
Factory-assembled bathroom pods further streamlined construction, ensuring consistent standards while reducing demand for on-site skilled labour. Externally, Corium brick slip cladding achieved the look of traditional brickwork with modern efficiency.
The scheme demonstrates how MMC can achieve lasting social value. Over half of the workforce was sourced locally, supporting the regional economy and reducing travel emissions. The homes themselves exceed national space standards and deliver high thermal performance, lowering energy use and costs for residents.
Fully let within months of launch, Indigo not only provides affordable, spacious homes but also stands as a model of how MMC can combine speed, sustainability and design quality in UK housing.
HMP Millsike – Kier with Ministry of Justice
HMP Millsike is a new £400m prison built by Kier for the Ministry of Justice, setting a new benchmark for custodial construction through MMC. With a pre-manufactured value of 84%, the scheme incorporated nearly 13,000 precast components across six houseblocks on its 53-acre site.
Delivered on time and to budget in January 2025, the project was completed in just 128 weeks. Offsite manufacturing accelerated progress considerably – each houseblock was completed in 12 weeks, with prefabricated M&E risers installed in under 10 days. Precast ground beams alone saved up to four weeks per block, while offsite assembly of plant and services reduced installation times by more than 25%.
An innovative digital tracking system linked to the 3D twin monitored every component from manufacture to installation, ensuring consistency and saving thousands of inspections. This helped achieve zero defects at completion and an average of only six snags per building.
As the UK’s first all-electric prison, Millsike combines speed, quality and sustainability. It demonstrates how MMC can transform major public sector projects, reducing carbon, improving efficiency and creating facilities designed for rehabilitation and wellbeing.
Join us for the 2025 edition of the Building Awards
This year’s event will take place at the Grosvenor House Hotel on 4 November.
There are 22 awards being handed out, so make sure you are in the room for construction’s night of nights and to celebrate excellence.
Tickets are selling fast, so secure your place today.
Orsett Heath Academy – McAvoy
At 8,610m², Orsett Heath Academy demonstrates how MMC can transform school delivery.
Following the collapse of the original contractor, the Department for Education required a rapid and reliable solution. McAvoy delivered a 1,200-pupil secondary school one week ahead of schedule, ensuring it was ready for the September 2024 term.
The scheme was built using 209 precision-engineered volumetric steel modules, installed in just five weeks. This approach allowed groundworks and factory production to run in parallel, cutting the programme by 12 weeks.
Digital tools including BIM, VR walk-throughs and augmented reality supported early clash detection, sequencing and rapid on-site installation. QR code tracking and over 428 factory inspections per module provided real-time quality assurance, helping deliver a defect-free outcome.
Externally, the UK’s largest timber cladding system gave the school architectural distinctiveness while supporting low maintenance and long-term adaptability. Internally, the design prioritised daylight, acoustics, SEND provision and wellbeing.
With 99% of waste diverted from landfill, extensive solar PV, air-source heat pumps and Forest Stewardship Council-certified materials, the academy achieved a BREEAM Very Good rating. Orsett Heath sets a benchmark for MMC in education: faster, smarter, greener and future-ready.
WSP – Building on a grand scale with kit-of-parts
Historically, construction relied on thousands of deliveries and complex on-site assembly, creating inefficiencies. To overcome this, WSP has pioneered a digitally driven kit-of-parts approach, combining DfMA (design for manufacture and assembly), offsite production and data-led optimisation.
Buildings are broken into large sub-assemblies that are manufactured offsite and rapidly assembled on site, cutting time, cost and emissions while improving quality.
The approach was exemplified at Manchester Airport, where WSP and partners transformed delivery of the £1.3bn Terminal 2 expansion. Instead of thousands of individual components, the design was rationalised into 67 factory-built sub-assemblies, transported from a nearby facility and installed quickly and safely in the live airport environment.
This reduced construction time significantly, shifted 59% of person-hours offsite, and cut 125 tonnes of CO₂ compared with traditional methods.
Digital catalogues, configurators and real-time feedback loops allowed standardised components to be reused and adapted across the programme, driving continuous improvement. Factory manufacture also reduced waste to around 2%, compared with up to 30% on site.
By embedding this kit-of-parts methodology, WSP demonstrated how digitalisation and industrialised construction can deliver faster, cleaner, higher-quality outcomes at scale.
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