In the past five years, the construction companies in London have experienced a huge surge of growth, multiplying to more than £8 billion in revenue.
While this kind of construction represents a small subset of the £1 trillion construction industry, a report found that 67% of contractual workers accept that the modular construction company experience increased demand in the coming years.
That same report cites to a variety of advantages of construction, including increased onsite efficiency, improved work productivity, improved security and lower construction costs.
In addition these advantages, modular construction also represents to a huge leap forward regarding ecological sustainability, including great opportunities for more responsible use of building materials and more eco-friendly plans.
What Is Modular Construction?
Modular buildings, also known as prefabricated buildings, are built almost entirely in off-site plants, rather than traditional buildings, which are constructed onsite. Modular construction involves fabricating a building in smaller units, called modules, which are later transported to a construction site and assembled.
In the plant, modules are manufactured using assembly line systems and construction technology, leading to an efficient and standard process. The use of precise modeling and construction in the factory reduces the requirement for change orders and adjustments.
Before leaving the plant, walls, floors, rooftops, doors and windows are built and installed and wiring, plumbing and ventilation are. Many modular buildings are now constructed with fixtures and completes already in place before they leave the plant.
Once the modules they are transported to the building site on flatbed trucks and collected in a predetermined order, with much of the labor involving the use of cranes to set the modules set up onto a pre-set establishment.
After the modules are set up, they are then seamlessly fitted together by construction laborers and other merchants to make a unified building. The outcome is a complete building, finished twice as quick as a similar building on a traditional site.
Eco-Friendly Aspects of Modular Construction
While modular building has clear benefits in terms of worker safety, site productivity and construction costs, there are also impressive environmental advantages. The advantages of pre-fabricated building start in the factory and continue to the building site and last through the lifetime of the building.
1. Decreases Construction Waste
Because different modules are being constructed at the same time, materials that would be disposed of on a normal building site can be reused for other projects in a modular construction facility. Traditional construction generates around 56 million tons of debris each year, and decreasing this sum would have huge environmental advantages.
2. Uses Recycled Materials
Modular buildings use a variety of sustainable materials, and most of them materials are recycled, including wood, steel and aluminum, which can be used to form siding, frames and rooftops. Some modular construction companies use innovative materials like oriented strand board (OSB), which is made using fast growing, economically sourced wood. Modular design experts are getting increasingly innovative with materials in their buildings, a building made completely of recycled cardboard, expected to most recent 100 years.
3. Decreases Energy Consumption During Construction
Since construction occurs in a controlled factory setting instead on site, overall energy use is decreased throughout making a modular building. During construction, energy usage is optimised using machine ecologically solid building process. Additionally, on-site energy uses are essentially lower, as construction times are substantially decreased with modular buildings.
4. Reduces Emissions
A United Nations report found that 39% of worldwide carbon emissions result from the construction field, and a lot of that is the result of inefficient transportation of work, equipment and materials. By decreasing overall transportation needs and improving the delivery of modules, modular construction can decrease total deliveries to building sites by 90%, which enormously affects total emission.
5. Uses Insulation That Reduces Energy Needs
Modular construction frequently includes a variety of features that decrease overall energy usage. One extremely helpful design choice is the use of “auxiliary insulated panels” (SIPs), which combine two exterior layers with insulated foam, creating a seal that is multiple times more airtight than fiberglass protection. Thus, modular buildings keep up their temperature quite well and require less heat or cooling.
6. Integrates Solar Panels
Many modular buildings are designed in view of solar energy. Combined with excellent insulation, solar panels can control the modest energy needs of well designed modular building. A simple solar setup can prevent 2.5 tons of carbon emissions yearly.
7. Features Green Fixtures and Finishes
Modern modular designs include a huge number of eco-focused features, as dimmable LED lighting, solar water heaters, occupancy sensors, batteries for energy storage, triple-paned windows and electric carports. Innovative companies using materials with no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and natural airflow technology to create designs that are healthier for people and the planet.
8. Built to Last — and to be Reused
One of the distinct advantages of modular construction is that the designs focus for resilience and long life expectancies, but this is also valid for some traditional buildings. Unique to modular buildings, be that as it may, is the ease with which they can be dismantled either to be reused in other areas and configurations or recycled for new projects. When considering long term sustainability, modular building has distinct advantages, particularly in helping to reduce debris generated by demolition, which represents in excess of 500 million tons of waste every year.
