Platform on new construction, renovation, restoration and transformation
Several parties in the precast construction industry have put their heads together to address the housing shortage in the Netherlands. Precast floor manufacturer VBI, Rc Panels, Factory Zero and the Module Factory use a modular and innovative building system in which a complete storey floor, including the prefabricated installation elements for heating, hot water, ventilation and for the sewage system, is installed in a home in one go. With this system, a standard home can be assembled in one day. This modular construction system allows for fast housing and can be easily scaled up to 25,000 units per year. "The idea is that any contractor can get started with this system and benefit substantially from significant time savings and high productivity of the construction system," said Rik van Dieren, working as an expert in system integration modular housing for VBI and others and involved in the development of this modular construction system. "Particularly for the middle and low housing segment, this industrial building system offers a quick solution to the growing housing shortage. Specifically, this concerns row houses."
There is currently a shortage of more than 300,000 housing units in the Netherlands, and that shortage will increase to 380,000 units by 2022. In the major cities where, on the contrary, there is a great need for thousands of housing units for newcomers, students and young people, the construction of new housing threatens to come to a virtual standstill (Financieele Dagblad, March 10, 2020). The result: rapidly rising prices for both purchase and rental housing. Especially social tenants who can no longer find affordable housing in the inner city will suffer. According to Van Dieren, the market yearns for fast and efficient housing construction that every contractor should be able to apply. Van Dieren: "This building system is characterized by a one-piece-flow approach in which all installations and components for the facade, floor and interior wall are delivered to the construction site in a frame."
Jan Willem van de Groep, director of Factory Zero, one of the consortium's parties, explains that Factory Zero makes the complete module for the home's installations for the modular building system. Those installations are in one box, a kind of energy module that fits exactly within the one piece flow approach of the building system. "That's convenient for the installer," says Van de Groep. All the installations are cleverly contained in a frame, which is prepared in the factory. These installations, integrated into the building system and controlled by smart algorithms, fit perfectly with the elements of the Module Factory and the hollow-core slabs from VBI, parties to the consortium. Van de Groep explains that this significantly reduces the cost of installation. "In addition, construction goes a lot faster because it works with as few different construction parties as possible." Currently, the consortium is working to integrate the latest developments into the building system. Ultimately, the goal is to bring all the energy elements together in one building system as a product. The product will then include integrated façade technology, sustainable energy production, smart heating and cooling systems and new manufacturing and assembly techniques. Developing standard homes from the precast industry is based on an automated and digitized process. The system fully monitors the home and is read remotely which allows service and maintenance to be performed in a totally different way, than on site. "For this system, it is not necessary to engage a whole chain of construction parties to fulfill just one customer requirement. That is extraordinarily costly, both in complexity and money, while the house performs excellently on performance guarantees and sustainability requirements," Van de Groep says, pointing out directly that choices with custom houses for customers are obviously much more extensive than with this modular construction system. "But also much more expensive! Customers can choose from pre-defined modifications that they make known using a parametric model," Van de Groep said.
The innovative, modular construction system was applied in a model home in Lemelerveld. In it, components have been assembled simultaneously, such as a complete storey floor with VBI's precast hollow-core slab floors, pipe segments for the W and E installations and the underfloor heating, completely in accordance with the design recommendation. "So with this, a new home can be built in one day," says Van Dieren. The system includes a heat pump system for heating and hot water, and a wtw system for ventilation. The finishing floor can be applied exactly at the height of the ready-made stairwell after the building system is installed. According to Van Dieren, this system translates into lower construction costs and an efficient construction process. "With this construction system, it is immediately clear what the starting point of the new floor system is. Van Dieren points out that this does require that the process on the construction site be in order and run smoothly. "The assembly system is developed for a specific type of house, office or apartment complex, new construction and renovation, where realization in one day is the starting point," says Van Dieren.
The demonstration house in Lemelerveld assembled with the modular building system is on the premises of Rc Panels, one of the initiators of the modular building system. This company develops prefabricated facade and roof parts for renovation and new construction houses. Kaj Huttenga innovation manager of Rc Panels: "Project housing construction can be smarter and different, which does not actually require complicated engineering. Simple products can be supplied from the industry, which answer questions that the builder can ask more often, namely: how can I assemble a house as quickly as possible, without adding to my own balance sheet or facing staff shortages?" According to Huttenga, initial reactions from builders have been enthusiastic, while they are actually still working on their own concept. "The demo house demonstrates the principle of modular building systems. The prefabricated products used are standardized and interfaces are constantly being improved to quickly assemble a home without using sealant and polyurethane foam. With this you build a ready-made product at a fixed price, which is ready within a day, to which nothing more needs to be changed or adjusted. This gives the contractor guaranteed delivery and reliable quality. "This makes the modular building system easy and affordable to scale up to 25,000 units per year, both for new construction and renovation. Any contractor can get away with it," says Huttenga.
In order to build industrially and modularly, this must be steered at the front end of the project. Jeroen Willems, who is involved in the Module Factory from Hegeman Bouwgroep, says that this steering helps architects and project developers, in particular, to use standard dimensions to realize fast, efficient homes. With this modular building system, the architect still has plenty of room for interesting designs for facades and roofs because he can vary beech and depth dimensions, facade layouts, floor plans and facade finishes. "Anything is possible on the outside and we see architects energetically working with this," says Willems. Gerben Geelen, in addition to being logistics project manager at Löwik, is project manager of the Module Factory. The Module Factory assembles the stairs and integrates them with the W- and E-installations. "The piping system, stairwells with stairs are completely integrated into the house," Geelen explains. "Within this system, different types of precast installation columns are available, into which VBI's hollow-core slabs are integrated with the piping." Structural and installation elements are combined in the installation columns, and the staircase including stairwell is the interface with the floor. As a result, fewer pipe floors and piping are needed for the installations in the home.
According to Thies van der Wal, manager of sustainability and CSR at VBI, this modular system relieves the contractor. "This modular system fits perfectly into the principle of remountable construction that is now strongly demanded by the construction industry. The contractor is the spider in the web. He plays a crucial role in the construction process by coordinating the assembly and remounting of homes," Van der Wal points out. This modular-designed home is circular and therefore exceeds the current property quality of regular homes. In fact, modular homes can be disassembled and reassembled elsewhere. Van der Wal anticipates that future housing and land valuation may change as a result of this type of development. "Especially real estate and land portfolios of investors and housing corporations, can be realized and operated with less risk," Van der Wal said.
As a producer of innovative precast floor systems, VBI offers industrial customization to build the future together with all parties in the chain. This makes it possible to anticipate rapidly changing market demands. This makes VBI not only a supplier but also a true partner. Together with contractors, constructors, architects and project developers we work daily on safer, smarter and more sustainable solutions. In this way VBI offers a basis on which we can literally and figuratively build together.
Based in Huissen, the Netherlands, VBI is part of the International Consolis. The Consolis Group focuses on making smart, sustainable precast concrete structures for Building, Rail and Infra and has about 11,000 employees in 25 countries worldwide.
