Modular construction is a process in which a building is constructed off-site in a factory-styled manufacturing facility. Businesses have understood the value of modular building for many years because of its cost savings, speed to market, and vast potential for various usage purposes. Thus far, developers have used modular for the construction of student housing projects, hotels, residential housing, healthcare offices, multifamily buildings, and more.
One signal that construction development is leaning towards modular construction is the development of a steel modular hotel in downtown Los Angeles. This is a ground-up, 11-story, 315-key modular hotel at 361 South Spring St. in downtown Los Angeles.
Though the modular construction industry has grown in recent years, it has yet to reach its full potential, experts say. Modular building will shape the future of building for three reasons: it’s eco-friendly, it solves complex problems, and it has many creative uses.
Modular building is green. One of the reasons that modular building is the future of building, in addition to being affordable, is because it’s good for the environment. Companies everywhere are turning to modular building because:
- Efficiency and quality control: the bulk of fabrication and assembly takes place in a controlled setting, optimized for manufacturing, the process of design, manufacture, and construction are integrated for effective quality assurance
- Reduction in material waste: cuts net waste, incident errors, and accidental damage
- Reduction in life cycle energy and carbon: life cycle structure supports a long life cycle, energy and carbon cost of construction amortized over a longer period of time
- Reduction in energy use for construction: factories are better able to control energy use and emissions than conventional construction
- Reduction in transportation related impacts: cuts greenhouse emissions because there are fewer deliveries and fewer workers commuting
- Reduction in operational impact (change): factory-made homes allow for tighter joints and seams, so portable buildings have more precise air barriers and installation of thermal insulation, the minimization of thermal bridging = more reliable thermal performance and conservation of energy
- Support of adaptation reduce, reuse, recycle: modified structures are likely to be adapted or modified for a new use
Modular building solves complex problems. Recently in Austin, Texas, Mobile Loaves & Fishes used modular housing as an antidote to the city’s homelessness issue. Mobile Loaves and Fishes developed Community First! Village, a transformative residential program that seeks to serve those who have been living on the streets, while also empowering the surrounding community into a lifestyle of service with the homeless. Community First! Village is a 27-acre master planned community where more than 200 people who were once chronically homeless live in tiny homes and RVs. Everyone who lives at Community First! pays rent, ranging from $225 to $430 per month; many residents are employed on-site.
Prefabricated housing is not just a solution to homelessness. Patrick Sisson, of curbed.com, reports that the United States is facing an affordable housing crisis, “Nearly two-thirds of renters nationwide say they can’t afford to buy a home, and saving for that down payment isn’t going to get easier anytime soon: Home prices are rising at twice the rate of wage growth.” More and more, city planners and big businesses see modular construction as a solution to the affordable housing crisis as well.
Companies like Google and Microsoft are taking notice and providing a creative solution: modular building. Google reportedly spent $30 million for 300 modular homes in the San Francisco Bay area, and Microsoft is reportedly spending $0.5 billion for modular housing in the Seattle area. At a time when states like California and Washington are facing a severe housing crisis, labor shortages, and the high cost of traditional stick-built construction, modular construction is seen as a perfect alternative for creating more units that come to market faster. Millennials, and soon Gen Z, will more likely be buying these houses because they combine green design and eco-friendly building practices with affordability.
The many creative uses of modular building
Modular building is the future because, as mentioned above, it’s environmentally friendly and offers solutions to complex problems such as homelessness and affordable housing, but also because there are so many creative uses for prefabricated structures.
Here are some of the ways Aries uses modular building:
- Portable school classrooms: Schools that have too many students and not enough space, or are in the process of constructing more space can benefit from our portable classrooms that can be used as science labs, libraries, assembly halls, and modular cafeterias. This includes all schools from preschools all the way to community colleges!
- Mobile hospitals: Modular, portable infirmaries are beneficial, especially during critical conditions such as natural disasters and war. They can be used for any and every medical procedure, including triage, trauma, decontamination, general surgery, breast screening, pathology, and more.
- Workforce housing: Aries is a full-service provider of workforce housing.
- Mobile offices: A popular choice for construction crews who have tight deadlines and need to keep clear communication channels during a construction project.
- Temporary housing during disaster recovery: This type of housing helped so many people who lost their homes during Hurricane Harvey!
Here are some of the ways other people have creatively used modular building:
1.Tiny homes: With the rise of the new minimalist movement in architecture and interior design, in part popularized by Japanese organizing guru Marie Kendo, an increasing number of people have been using prefabricated structures as “tiny homes,” in order to save on money and space.
2. Man-cave/womb-room: For years, husbands and fathers have been using prefabricated structures as a place to drink beer, watch sports, or as the proverbial “doghouse.” Recently women and mothers have been using them as a space to drink chilled white wine or craft in order to escape the demands of wifedom/motherhood.
3. Artist studio/writing room: Are you tired of making a mess in your house every time you wish to pursue your favorite hobby? Do you need an art studio but can’t afford one? Do you need a quiet place to write that is close enough to home (like your backyard!) so that you can still be there when the kids need your help? Many artists and writers have found prefabricated storage containers as solutions to this problem.
4. Playrooms. Some families have even found that prefabricated sheds make for great kids’ playrooms!
Have you found any creative uses for prefabricated buildings? If so, we’d love to hear your ideas, email us! Aries sells prefabricated office buildings to be used as construction offices, portable school classrooms, mobile hospitals, workforce housing at oil pipeline sites, storage containers, and for disaster recovery relief, but we’d love to help you buy one for any purpose at all!
About Aries – Aries offers full turnkey solutions with exceptional customer service and robust financing options. We pride ourselves on combining product quality, design expertise, technical and financial innovation, and strategy that has already established us a first choice to customers. Contact us today at 888-995-8560 to request a quote, or reach out to your local sales associate here.
