'Modular construction: always smarter, faster and cleaner'

Modular construction has been moving from a niche market into the mainstream of home construction in recent years. And not without reason. "The housing market is gradually reaching boiling point, with a shortage of 300,000 homes," says director Harry van Zandwijk of Jan Snel, market leader in modular construction. "We can cope with this in many ways, based on a construction quality that is not inferior to that of traditional construction. Indeed, modular construction is smarter, faster and cleaner."

Text | Jan-Kees Verschuure  Image | Jan Snel

The days when modular construction stood for temporary modules to bridge a shortage of permanent real estate are long gone, says Van Zandwijk. "Modular construction as we practice it stands for realization according to the latest regulations and under conditioned conditions, with lower failure costs, shorter development and construction time and a completely demand-driven organization. Completely different from traditional construction. To give an example, we produce a hundred modules a week in our own factory and deliver some 1,300 site-built homes this year, turnkey if necessary including permits and site layout. By the way, the differences in regulations between temporary construction and permanent construction are also becoming smaller and smaller, in our opinion an excellent thing."

Director Harry van Zandwijk of Jan Snel.

Strong demand growth

Van Zandwijk certainly does not want to speak only of an image shift. "As a matter of fact, in the sixty years of our existence we have been building modular houses at the aforementioned level for twenty years, for example with the replacement houses for the NCG (National Coordinator Groningen; ed.) in earthquake area Groningen. These are homes that may have been erected with an eye on ten, fifteen years, but in quality they are in no way inferior to traditional ground-level homes. Just to show that the problem is not technology. Furthermore, demand is developing explosively, for example when it comes to ground-level housing, student housing, apartments and housing for migrant workers, and the demand for modular solutions for hospitals is also growing rapidly." The problem with housing market shortages is political, Van Zandwijk believes. "In particular, it concerns the availability of sites and investment space among housing associations. Apart from that, the demand for modular construction has risen sharply, with us selling no as little as possible and always coming up with new solutions."

Continuous innovation

As for stacked construction, Jan Snel now goes up to 12 layers and even higher in the future. "In addition, we are increasingly operating as a site-specific developer. We want to contribute to the housing shortage with our innovative, modular construction methodology and proactive project development. In the coming years, we will continue to expand our development activities, including regular housing projects. Through knowledge development and exchange, we constantly strive to improve every step of the process. This is also one of the reasons why we became a member of NEPROM. We need to move forward, there is no room for sticking to traditions if we can do better. And it can be better, based on continuous innovation in production logistics, plant engineering and safety, as is common in the automotive industry. What could be better than a business model that is completely demand-driven? And the best part is, we can do it completely circularly and with less manpower. Modular construction according to Jan Snel is always smarter, faster and cleaner."