The elements are in place for a housing gigafactory
More than 50% of all construction projects will use modular construction and 3D printing within five years, says Kenny Ingram, a global industry director of construction at enterprise software company IFS. The benefits include consistent high quality, savings in staffing and time, improved site safety and reduction in air and noise pollution. However, a move to modular construction requires a different business model and a new skill set, with the industry evolving into a hybrid of construction and manufacturing.

 
Within five years, more than 50 per cent of all construction projects will use modular construction and 3D printing.

I recently visited an Irish construction company constructing beautiful, durable, high-quality schools throughout the UK.

But it built them at its plant in Ireland and shipped them across the UK for assembly on site.

Each school module took a few months to construct. These were extremely high-quality builds – if you had seen one in its finished state you would never have guessed it had been built in a factory.

The new norm

Modular construction is all around us. In fact, we probably don’t spot them precisely because they have become so usual.

Modules are the new bricks and mortar in airport terminals and rail stations (Heathrow Airport and Birmingham New Street are just two examples).

And they’re built to last. These assets have upwards of a 30-40-year life, lasting as long they are designed for. Globally, we are seeing modular move into residential housing, too.

“For businesses who have traditionally built everything on site, the move to modular requires a different business model and a new skillset”

In Singapore a new type of modular method – PPVC (prefabricated, prefinished, volumetric construction) – recently emerged.

Complete apartment blocks are PPVC-manufactured in a factory. Each separate unit contained internal finishes, fixtures and fittings, all manufactured en masse, transported and assembled on site as modules.

According to a McKinsey report, the companies using PPVC report 50 per cent savings in staffing and time. The new method produced minimal air and noise pollution, and improved site safety.

World-leading solution?

In a world where the global population increases by a billion every 12 years, the speed and high-volume capabilities of modular construction and 3D printing means they will emerge as leading solutions.

3D printing is now becoming the rule rather than the exception for many companies, and wider social take-up is booming. Many high schools, universities and colleges in the UK and Germany now own 3D printing machines as a matter of course for students.

For businesses who have traditionally built everything on site, the move to modular requires a different business model and a new skillset. They are, in effect, no longer construction companies – but a hybrid of construction and manufacturing.

Bringing in new graduates and business expertise, learning from manufacturing companies about lean, agile, integrated processes – all these are vital for seizing the opportunity. Plus, they need to have these skills in-house.

Clients in this new arena would not choose to go to a firm that outsourced its modular construction when they could choose one that had it all under one roof.

Kenny Ingram is global industry director of construction at IFS