OFFSITE CONSTRUCTION
Figure 3: Prefabrication of racks for MEP components in an ‘offsite’ warehouse at the Riverside Methodist Hospital project in Columbus, Ohio, designed by NBBJ.
The demand from customers such as Google/Alphabet, Marriott, Muji, Taco Bell, and McDonald’s, that need ‘offsite’ techniques to open their facilities more quickly than they would be able to do via traditional construction. In the UK and Australia particularly, governments and professional associations have pushed several important efforts to boost ‘construction manufacturing’.
An emerging interest among large construction companies to associate with offsite construction specialists.
Types of offsite construction These new offsite enterprises are beginning to put forward completely new themes in the design and construction processes. From the point of view of constructability, offsite manufacturing introduces new levels of system complexity,2
new relationships and
workflows between experts and organisations,3,4
and new differences that
Figure 4: Installation of MEP racks at the Riverside Methodist Hospital project in Columbus, Ohio.
arise from building connections in the assembly of construction (Björnfot 2004).5 There are at least three basic types of offsite manufacturing today.
Offsite element prefabrication In this mode, some element of the construction that is not available in the market is assembled in a factory or facility, led by a sub-contractor or supplier. Examples include companies that provide components ranging from flat elements such as prefabricated walls, to more sophisticated 3D items, such as mechanical-electrical-plumbing (MEP) distribution racks, bathroom pods, or even entire prefabricated operating rooms. This mode is a hybrid that addresses some of the issues of managing on-site construction, and the processes that arise from manufacturing. One of the critical issues in element prefabrication is the connection or ‘decoupling point’. The complexity of the connection can be reduced by standardisation of the
connection, communication, and the method of construction.
Temporary offsite facilities to prefabricate building components This approach is harnessed when construction organisations rent facilities close to the construction project to build a significant number of components in a warehouse environment. The example of the two hospitals led by NBBJ Architects, presented next in this paper, fits into this category.
Offsite volume manufacturing Here companies manufacture the entire building in a factory, before rapidly assembling in on site. Examples of ‘offsite volume manufacturing’ companies cited in this paper include Broad Group, Katerra, Prescient, and some of the Swedish companies that often cooperate with contractors who prepare the site and foundations. A major theme for ‘offsite volume’ manufacturers is the quest for
Figure 5: On the left is the mapping of the programme analysis that BLOX developed for a healthcare client. Having studied each department and programme, the company discovered many variations of every programme, but to develop guidelines to manufacture, it reduced the variation into nine modules. Shown, right, are the parts BLOX developed to manufacture bathrooms and MEP racks for healthcare clients from the study.
24 Health Estate Journal August 2019
©NBBJ
©NBBJ
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