The construction industry has been undergoing massive changes during the last decade or so. There is a new concentration of the sector towards the prefabricated market. It’s more efficient, requires fewer materials, and produces less waste.
Prefabricated buildings are a pretty old concept that dates back to the early 1800s. Demands back then mainly were on farmhouses and barnyards. Nowadays, prefabricated buildings come in homes, extensions, and offices; almost any structure you can think of can be prefabricated.
The prefabricated market is the most pivotal sub-sector in the industry today. But, you might ask, what makes prefabricated buildings so revolutionary today? Our first answer to that is that it’s cheap.
Efficient and Cheap
A significant reason the prefabricated buildings market is so attractive to many people is that it’s cheap. Many prefabricated buildings produce less waste because most parts of the buildings are cut beforehand. Moreover, these cuts are accurate enough to consume all the necessary materials. Additionally, prefabricated buildings can be built by people with minimal experience in construction.
Home extensions are where the cheap cost of prefabricated buildings shines. Certain companies such as Trade Oak Building Kits sell prefabricated home extensions such as pergolas for people to build by themselves. It’s much cheaper than building home extensions traditionally.
Prefabricated buildings also excel in many ways compared to traditional buildings. One major thing it excels on is that its build-time. Depending on its size, a fabricated home can be built within a small time frame of 16 to 30 weeks. So, on average, you should expect your modular home to be finished in about four months, that’s two months less than traditionally-built homes.
The main reason why prefabricated buildings take less time to build is that everything is also already cut. Most contractors only have to follow the manual that comes with the shipment and make it like a Lego for modular homes. It’s as simple as that.
As more investments come into this market, they are more likely to be cheaper and faster to build. One technology that helps the efficiency and cost of prefabricated buildings is 3D printing.
3D Design and Printing
Our technology is improving every year, and we can see that in every industry in the world. It seems that everything is made faster than before. One revolutionary tech that’s completely revolutionizing the world of prefabricated buildings is 3D design and printing.
Before, engineers and architects struggled in visualizing their projects. They were forced to work on a couple of sets of blueprints, hoping that the project would work out in the end. This hinges primarily on each of their respective talents. But those days are now gone.
With the existence of 3D design and printing, buildings are being made faster than before and with extreme accuracy. The 3D design makes it possible for people to make their projects come to life before starting them. At the same time, 3D printing makes making each part more accurate and cheaper. Let’s have a look at some examples.
The Ark hotel, which is 30-storeys high, was built in less than a month in 2012. All of its prefabricated parts only required assembly, and it reduced a staggering project which would have lasted more than six months to about fifteen days. The impossible was done, and it was also done in record time. This was just the beginning of 3D prefabricated buildings and marked a new construction process for the market.
The main setback of such a strategy not being done by every country in the world is that it’s costly. It’s not clear yet how much Ark hotel costs developers, but the estimated number can easily reach more than a hundred million. However, with more improvements to the tech are made, the more likely it’ll be cheaper to build projects in the future.
It’s quite clear that prefabricated buildings are our way to the future. But it still has a couple of things it has to improve upon. But because of its multibillion-dollar valuation, it seems that nothing is going to stop this market from growing.
A Hundred Billion-dollar Market
There is no doubt about it. The prefabricated buildings market is going to take the world by storm in the coming years. As prices for homes increase throughout the years, modular homes have become the solution for many people. It takes less time to build and half the cost of the homes found in the market today.
Moreover, there’s going to be more buildings like the Ark hotel in the future. As more engineers and architects work together with 3D design and printing, cities can be made in just a couple of months. The future of construction is here, and we only need to apply it properly into our society.
