When you think Modular Construction, you might instantly summon up images of short-term domestic housing, small-scale commercial projects, and ephemeral, “put ‘em up and take ‘em down” commissions: something, in other words, day-to-day, unexceptional, and homely. But nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, 3D Modular Systems are ideally suited for creating homes faster and more economically than any dinosaur contractor could hope to match (which is of huge significance given current levels of homelessness), and in an age where everything from retail outlets to office units has to be delivered in weeks not months, nothing does that better than Modular Construction. But it’s by no means the entire picture…
Just take a look, for example, at the latest part of the expansion programme currently unfolding at Denver International Airport (“DIA”: www.flydenver.com): it includes 26,312 sq. ft. of brand new concourse, passenger transit, and groundload facilities, and all of them were put together using Modular Technologies. That’s just the second phase of a longstanding project, so it will also tie together with the existing (also Modular) 38,929 sq. ft. of new passenger facilities put up by Ramtech Building Systems in 2018 (www.ramtechmodular.com). COVID intervened and confounded any hopes of seamless, inter-stage execution (something Modular’s exceptionally good at, too), but it’s still a hugely impressive achievement.
Taking the two stages together, the overall project amounts to 65,241 sq. ft. of new build (the size of five Olympic swimming pools), incorporating five new gates (with related technologies), pre-assembled roofing, and technically enabled walls and floors: all of it specially tailored to meet the demands of an airport nestling at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and regularly encountering the (not insignificant) challenges of 160 mph winds. So there’s certainly nothing transient or vulnerable about Modular Facilities either…
But here’s the real payback of DIA’s decision to go Modular: the entire second phase of the expansion project was completed in just six weeks (which is going some compared with the sixteen months it took to complete Manchester Airport’s new Terminal Two (and that’s just the construction phase)).
Expert analysis has consistently shown Modular Construction projects (large and small) deliver faster, more sustainably, and up to 30% less expensive than their stuck-in-the-mud, dinosaur counterparts (www.mckinsey.com). Those tailor-made units so intelligently made use of by DIA were all constructed off-site in environmentally controlled conditions before being trucked out and assembled on site as part of a carefully timed programme, which meant there was less waste, too (bear in mind conventional Construction is still the worst generator of industrial waste on the planet). The technology could be built into the units at the warehouse, so there was minimal need to coordinate potentially difficult installations on site. And it all added up to a better bottom line…so what’s not to like?
Meanwhile, over in Pune, Modulex is constructing what will become the World’s biggest Mega Factory for the creation of steel modular buildings, using 3D Volumetric Technologies (including AI and IoT) to meet burgeoning global demands for essential infrastructure while at the same time delivering at pace and securing optimal efficiency levels. This cutting-edge ConstrucTech company (part of the Red Ribbon family) has a current order pipeline £37.5 Million. It is primed to roll out fifteen factories across emerging markets over the years ahead.
So, in short, this is a global trend, and there’s nothing unexceptional or homely about it…
Modular Construction works intelligently on so many levels, from new homes to offices, schools to warehouses, and, yes, airports too…