Why Factory Built Is the Future of Design. 

A Melbourne Design Week event presented by prefabAUS and RMIT's Post Carbon Research Centre.

For too long, "prefabricated" construction has been dismissed as substandard—cheap, ugly, and limited. This perception isn't just outdated, it's dangerous. It's actively preventing Australia's design community from accessing the only construction methods proven to deliver the environmental performance, quality, and precision our climate future demands.

This panel showcases Australia's manufacturing renaissance — bringing together leaders demonstrating that factory construction isn't about reducing design ambition, it's about amplifying it whilst fundamentally transforming our environmental impact. When you can achieve millimetre-perfect tolerances, when you control environmental conditions during construction, when you integrate advanced building physics and circular economy principles from day one, you unlock both architectural possibilities AND environmental performance that traditional site-built construction simply cannot match.

Our panellists represent Victorian design-led innovation across building typologies:

Evissa exemplifies how precision manufacturing enables Passivhaus-certified architecture—buildings that deliver exceptional thermal comfort, indoor air quality, and virtually zero operational carbon.

Modscape + Modbotics demonstrates design-led modular construction across residential and commercial projects, proving that prefabrication enables bespoke architectural sophistication whilst reducing waste and build timelines.

prefabAUS provides the industry perspective on how this transformation creates high-skilled Australian manufacturing jobs whilst establishing the circular economy principles that will define sustainable building for the next century.

Join us for this one-hour discussion including audience Q&A followed by networking drinks nearby thanks to FTA.

Facilitator

Alicia Brown, Editor, Smart Building Review. 

Event schedule

4:45pm Arrive and Register

5:00pm Welcome

5:10pm Facilitated discussion: Why Factory Built Is the Future of Design 

6:00pm Q&A

6:15pm Wrap Up (Participants are invited to join us at a nearby venue for drinks)

Questions? Contact Emily