Search results

Global megatrends such as urbanization and ageing of the population result in fast-paced demographic changes, which pose different types of challenges for different regions. While many rural municipalities bear the burden of under-used buildings, cities are in a hurry to develop new ones to meet new space demands. The purpose of this paper is to assess the potential of relocatable modular buildings to address these challenges, following the principles of circular economy, while at the same time offering usability.

This multiple case study explores existing relocatable modular health-care buildings in Finland. The case buildings host hospital support functions, imaging services, a health-care centre and a care home. The primary data comprise 21 semi-structured interviews and observation during factory and site visits.

Based on the findings, relocatable modular buildings have many benefits and provide a viable option for cities and municipalities struggling to meet their fluctuating space demands. Some challenges were also identified, mainly derived from the dimensional restrictions of the modules.

This research contributes to the emerging body of knowledge on circular economy in the built environment. More specifically, the research provides a very concrete example of circularity and details a framework for usable and relocatable modular buildings. In conclusion, relocatable modular buildings could solve the challenges posed by quickly changing demographics in different types of regions and deliver both usability and circularity.

Modular construction is widely used for residential buildings of 4 to 8 storeys. In the context of open building systems, modular construction provides a systemised approach to design in which the benefits of prefabrication are maximised. There is demand to extend this form of construction to more than 12 storeys for residential buildings. This paper presents a review of modular technologies, and describes load tests and analysis on light steel modular walls that are used to justify the use of light steel technology to support higher loads.

For taller modular buildings, the effect of installation and geometric inaccuracies must be taken into account and it is proposed that maximum out of verticality of a vertical group of modules is 50mm relative to ground datum. Using these geometric tolerances, the notional horizontal force used to evaluate stability of a group of modules should be taken as a minimum of 1% of the applied vertical load on the modules. Robustness to accidental load effects is important in all high-rise buildings and it is proposed that the tie force in the connections between modules should be taken as not less than 30% of the total vertical load applied to the module in both horizontal directions.

The challenges arising from the reform of the social and healthcare sector call for efficient, effective and novel processes in both public and private health and medical care. Facilities need to be designed to suit the new processes and to offer usable workspaces at different levels of healthcare services. Along with traditional construction, modular facility innovations could be one solution to these pressures. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This case study analyzed the different usability characteristics of the work environment in modular and non-modular healthcare facilities (HCFs). The qualitative research method was based on semi-structured interviews of employees and observations of the case buildings.

According to the results, the usability characteristics were divided into four main categories: functionality, healthiness, safety/security and comfort. The main differences between the modular and non-modular facilities appeared to be room size, soundproofing, safety issues and the utilization of colors and artwork, which were all perceived as better realized in the non-modular facilities. The staff highlighted functionality as the most important characteristic in their work environment. They even considered functionality as a feature of a comfortable work environment.

This paper presents new knowledge and a detailed description of the opinions and experiences of healthcare professionals concerning a user-centric, usable environment in the context of modular and non-modular HCFs.

Modular construction is an innovative method that enhances the performance of building construction projects. However, the performance of steel modular construction has not been systematically understood, and the existing measurement methods exhibit limitations in effectively addressing the features of steel modular building construction. Therefore, this study aims to develop a new performance measurement framework for systematically examining the performance of steel modular construction in building projects.

This study was conducted through a mixed-method research design that combines a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art practices of construction performance measurement and a case study with a 17-story steel modular apartment building project in Hong Kong. The case project was measured with data collected from the project teams and other reliable channels, and the measurement practices and findings were referenced to establish a systematic performance measurement framework for steel modular construction.

Considering steel modular construction as a complex socio-technical system, a systematic performance measurement framework was developed, which considers the features of steel modular construction, focuses on the construction stage, incorporates the views of various stakeholders, integrates generic and specific key performance indicators and provides a benchmarking process. Multifaceted benefits of adopting steel modular construction were demonstrated with case study, including improved economic efficiency (e.g. nearly 10% cost savings), improved environmental friendliness (e.g. approximately 90% waste reduction) and enhanced social welfare (e.g. over 60% delivery trips reduction).

This paper extends the existing performance measurement methods with a new framework proposed and offers experience for future steel modular construction. The measured performance of the case project also contributes in-depth understanding on steel modular construction with benefits demonstrated. The study is expected to accelerate an effective uptake of steel modular construction in building projects.

With many natural disasters such as earthquakes, cyclones, bushfires and tsunamis destroying human habitats around the world, post-disaster housing reconstruction has become a critical topic. The current practice of post-disaster reconstruction consists of various approaches that carry affected homeowners from temporary shelters to permanent housing. While temporary shelters may be provided within a matter of days as immediate disaster relief, permanent housing can take years to complete. However, time is critical, as affected communities will need to restore their livelihoods as soon as possible. Prefabricated modular construction has the potential to drastically improve the time taken to provide permanent housing. Due to this time-efficiency, which is an inherent characteristic of modular construction, it can be a desirable strategy for post-disaster housing reconstruction. This paper discusses how prefabricated modular structures can provide a more time-efficient solution by analysing several present-day examples taken from published post-disaster housing reconstruction processes that have been carried out in different parts of the world. It also evaluates how other features of modular construction, such as ease of decommissioning and reusability, can add value to post-disaster reconstruction processes and organisations that contribute to the planning, design and construction stages of the reconstruction process. The suitability of modular construction will also be discussed in the context of the guidelines and best practice guides for post-disaster housing reconstruction published by international organisations. Through this analysis and discussion, it is concluded that prefabricated modular structures are a highly desirable time-efficient solution to post-disaster housing reconstruction.

Constant change in current market and social conditions has triggered the demand for a more adaptable building stock. The capacity to assume and accommodate change has thus become a new requirement for buildings. At the same time, there is a growing demand for more environmentally conscious buildings. New protocols, building codes, and certification systems are becoming stricter regarding buildings’ CO2 emissions, energy efficiency, and other environmental aspects. The current building industry fails to satisfy these two demands; conventional buildings rarely enable change, unless undergoing complex renovations, and rarely consider environmental features beyond mandatory legislation. In this context, this paper proposes Modular Ecotechnological Architecture as a response to both demands. The basis is an integrated design that looks at energy, water, and materials’ efficiency altogether, combined with a modular industrialized building system. The system allows buildings to grow or reduce in size according to their needs, with little impact for their inhabitants, enabling versatility for a variety of uses within the same space and over time. This paper presents the concept of this new building system together with the technical, building code-related, and economic challenges encountered throughout recent experimental projects.

This paper aims to present research which explores the application of modular practices and principles within a construction sector supply chain to demonstrate the degree to which supply chain practices are aligned with modular construction.

The paper uses an exploratory case study approach to examine a construction supply chain from module manufacturer through to module client. Each member of the supply chain was involved in the provision of a modular hospital in the United Kingdom.

The findings suggest that there is a need to increase supply chain integration to ensure that modular solutions can compete more effectively with traditional, on‐site solutions and overcome some of the negative attributes associated with modular buildings.

The study has focused on the key stages of a modular supply chain in order to identify the application of supply chain practices within the context of modular operations. Suppliers need to balance the inherent limitations associated with modular product architecture with the increasing needs of module clients for more bespoke modular solutions.

The paper provides useful insights into the dynamics of modular supply chain operations, which illustrate the difficulties associated with integrating modular operations and competing with the traditional on‐site construction, which currently dominates the sector.

The main theoretical argument put forward in this paper centres on the need for greater levels of supplier integration amongst suppliers to the modular construction industry. The study is one of the first to explore supply chain integration through the lens of a single modular supply chain and contributes to knowledge in this growing area through the development of a number of tools to position potential and current module suppliers.

The ascendancy of modular offsite construction (MOSC) over traditional construction methods is well known. Despite the known potential of this construction approach, its adoption is minimal in New Zealand construction industry. This article investigates the potential benefits of using MOSC for delivery of high-rise buildings in New Zealand, underlying factors responsible for its low uptake and the measures that can facilitate its improved uptake.

This study utilised a mixed research approach. An empirical questionnaire survey was carried out with New Zealand construction industry professionals with expertise in MOSC. Factor analysis of survey data was carried out using SPSS software. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with subject matter experts to get further insights and expand the survey findings. Interview data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Study identified benefits of MOSC, thus establishing potential of its uptake for high-rise building construction. Constraining factors were investigated, most pronounced being low level of skills in construction industry to design, manufacture and integrate supply chain of MOSC, high initial investment, high cost of importing modules and negative perception about offsite manufactured buildings. This study also highlighted the enablers to improve uptake of MOSC. These enablers included; loan and mortgage policies to suit MOSC paradigm, building regulations to support OSC industry, increased support from the government and awareness and acceptance of standardised building designs among the clients.

Originality of this paper harps from little to no research carried out to investigate use of MOSC for high-rise buildings in New Zealand context.

Housing completions in the UK have fallen to 125,000 annually, while government targets have risen to 300,000. This dramatic shortfall raises concerns as to whether current traditional construction approaches remain appropriate. This study aims to compare the traditional approach with modular construction, with a view to assessing whether a shift in construction systems offers the potential to alleviate the UK's domestic housing crisis.

A comprehensive interpretivist review of the available relevant literature is undertaken on construction methods within the UK; advantages and disadvantages. A bibliometric analysis is conducted to extract trends and findings relevant to the comparison at hand. The database is Web of Science; the analysis software is the VOS viewer.

The research illustrates that the UK housing market is in a state of crisis. A toxic combination of a rising UK population combined falling rates of housing delivery has resulted in an ever-widening housing supply gap. The construction industry’s capacity to meet this observed dearth in supply is further exacerbated by a number of chronic factors such as: falling participation in the construction sector workforce; lowering skill levels; reducing profitability; time to delivery pressures; and cost blow-outs.

While much information on the various construction methods are available, including comparative material, this study is the first to assemble the various comparative parameters regarding traditional and modular UK residential construction in one place. Thus, this study provides a definitive assessment of the relative advantages and disadvantages of these forms of construction.

This paper aims to propose a generative design method combined with meta-heuristic algorithm for automating and optimizing the floor layout of modular buildings using typical standardized module units, which are the room module, the corridor module and the stair module.

The integrated framework involves the generative design method and optimization for modular construction. The generative rules are provided by geometric relationships and functionalities of the module units. An evaluation function of the generated floor plans is also presented by the combination of project cost and cost penalties for the geometric features. The multi-population genetic algorithm (MPGA) method is provided for the optimization of the combination of costs.

The proposed MPGA method is demonstrated fast and efficient at discovering the globally optimal solution. The results indicate that when the unit price of modules is high, the transportation distance is long, or the land cost is high, the layout cost, which related to the symmetry, the compactness and the energy is tend to be lower, making the optimal layout economical.

This paper presented an integrated framework of generative floor layout and optimization for modular construction by using typical module units. It fulfills the need for automated layout generation with repetitive units and corresponding assessment during the early design stage.