Early adopters

The benefits of being ahead of the curve

We’ve delivered a school in 50 weeks from phone call to handover – so incredibly quick. And it needed to be because of the urgency of the brief. That was only possible due to using modular construction.

While funding was one driver behind education’s adoption of offsite methods, attendees also discussed the speed and logistical benefits as factors.Another at the table echoed the logistical benefits: “We had a situation where a 1FE school was due to be delivered within the summer holiday period. It was doable – just – with offsite: 12 weeks on site but all the modules pre-delivered during a six-week period."“We weren’t allowed to deliver units during the school day but we worked with the manufacturer to fly them in outside of those hours. Modular is a great option when you’ve got a three-line whip on delivery timescales and hours of operation. As schools expand, the ability to build on additional modular elements with comparative ease is also going to be a real strength.”As an early adopter, education had a key role to play in providing the case studies for other sectors, one person suggested: “We’re starting to see some impressive larger education schemes delivered through offsite. We need to be shouting about their success and doing all we can to banish dated views of modular.”The discussion drew to a close with a focus on the potential for modular to help the industry address its sustainability challenges:

A big driver for local authorities is zero carbon by 2030 – so if modular can help deliver that it could be a big selling point. But early engagement to assess the impact that a zero-carbon commitment will have on the entire scheme is crucial.

Another added: “At the end of a life cycle of a modular building, can you reuse about half of the structure. You’d lose the M&E, but the rest is far easier to repurpose than with a traditional build. We’ve not gone through a life cycle of many of these schemes, but that’s likely to become more apparent and circular economy principles are a real USP.”Everyone agreed that embodied carbon was going to become a much bigger focus for the industry and offsite construction had the potential to deliver real savings here.“Our carbon footprint during the build process is rightly going to come under more scrutiny. With modular, once you’re actually on site, emissions traffic is dramatically reduced. It’s all done offsite in one factory. There’s no subcontractor traffic.”

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What is the biggest barrier in your opinion?

Poor perception of quality/flexibility
Increased cost
Industry capacity