Dean of Texas A & M’s College of Architecture speaks out about modular construction.
In 2008 Dr. Jorge Vanegas was invited to join the Committee on Advancing the Competitiveness and Productivity of the U.S. Construction Industry, which was organized by the National Research Council (NRC) in response to a request by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The goal was to appoint an ad hoc committee of experts to provide advice for advancing the competitiveness and productivity of the U.S. construction industry. Through extensive discussions among committee members, in-depth white papers commissioned from industry analysts, and the results from an intensive 2-day workshop held with experts from industry, government, and academia, this committee identified a range of activities that could significantly advance construction efficiency, cut waste in time, costs, materials, energy, skills, and labor, and improve the quality, timeliness, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of construction projects. The result of the committee’s efforts was compiled and consolidated in the document entitled “Advancing the Competitiveness and Productivity of the U.S. Construction Industry.” Within this document, the “…greater use of prefabrication, preassembly, modularization, and off-site fabrication techniques and processes…” was identified as one of five interrelated activities labeled as “Opportunities for Breakthrough Improvements,” which have the greatest potential to advance significantly construction efficiency and productivity in 2 to 10 years.
P. Nourse: What about those architects, AEs, owners, developers who are wholly committed only to conventional construction?
Dr. Vanegas: To anyone invoved in the planning, development, execution, and delivery of capital facilities and residential projects who may be committed only to conventional construction, I would say to them: you are missing a great opportunity to break away from the status quo, to gain a competitive edge, and to deliver higher value to your clients. As stated in the NRC report and numerous other studies, prefabrication, preassembly, modularization, and off-site fabrication techniques and processes enable significant improvements over conventional or traditional construction. In some cases, these techniques can minimize job-site environmental impacts, such as material waste, air and water pollution, dust and noise, and overall energy costs. In other cases, they enable projects to be executed in better and more controlled conditions that respond to a wide range of challenges: harsh weather challenges during construction; stringent quality control requirements from the start to the end of the project; the need for improved supervision of labor, particularly in construction operations, processes, and tasks that require high levels of skill; easier access to tools and specialized equipment, and other construction execution logistic challenges; and a need for reduced material deliveries and on-site materials storage and handling. Furthermore, proper application of these techniques changes the sequencing of workflow, which in turn can lead to compression of the project schedules by allowing the assembly of components off-site concurrently with the execution of on-site activities, better sequencing of construction personnel from the various trades and crafts involved in a project, and reduction in work crew scheduling conflicts. These techniques also contribute to higher levels of worker safety, which are achieved through reduced exposures to inclement weather, temperature extremes, and ongoing or hazardous operations, as well as through better working conditions, less congestion at the job site, and transferring of the assembly of certain components at heights to the ground level for subsequent hoisting into place. Finally, these techniques enable much higher levels of embedded components and elements, and of pre-testing and pre-commissioning of building systems, prior to their arrival on-site, and also, of de-commissioning, deconstruction, and resource recovery at the end of the life span of the facility. Not being aware of the potential to achieve higher levels of benefits and value, which these techniques can bring to a project, or not wanting to accept them as a result of biases, unfounded perceptions, or uninformed pre-judgment, in my opinion, both are missed opportunities.
Read our complete interview with Dr. Vanegas
Architect Mark Miller Talks About Modular Construction
This year we’ve been actively promoting Warrior Group to architects and architectural engineers. Our goal was three-fold: to acquaint them with Warrior Group’s construction services, to educate them on the many advantages of permanent modular construction and to build relationships. Mark Miller is one of the architects we spoke to. Mark Miller is already convinced that modular offers a lot to his firm’s area of expertise which is the K-12 market. His firm Project FROG (Flexible Response to Ongoing Growth) is the innovator of adaptive, learning conducive and “green” modular school buildings.
Read Full Article About Modular Construction
