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It's also gaining popularity in the hotel industry. Inspiring video: http://www.guerdonmodularbuildings.com/modular-now-marriotts-modular-initiative/ http://ww

by jpao79 8y ago

It's also gaining popularity in the hotel industry. Inspiring video: http://www.guerdonmodularbuildings.com/modular-now-marriotts-modular-initiative/ http://www.guerdonmodularbuildings.com/modular-now-marriotts... It has many benefits for the construction teams. They can work in a controlled environment, and focus on technical skills versus getting through urban commutes, live in lower cost of living areas (in this case Idaho), all the tools/materials are there, have quality assurance processes, etc. I think the key is its for condos/apartments which will look virtually indistinguishable from a conventional apartment building, then you escape the stigma of mobile trailer home.

jpao79 8y ago
Here's an advocate in the Bay Area: Solving the housing part of homelessness through the construction of modular, micro-housing is described in the above video by Patrick Kennedy, founder of Panoramic Interests https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0fyFtbaQk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0fyFtbaQk And here's an example in Sunnyvale: http://www.palisadebuilders.com/projects/domain/ http://www.palisadebuilders.com/projects/domain/
- DrScump 8y ago
  And here's an example in Sunnyvale: All 3 are in San Jose, according to the page.
petra 8y ago
Sadly, the job market is pretty simple: when you make a job easier, workers earn less. And it's true for pre-fab, which replaced unionized trades with automation and non-union factory workers, cutting wages drastically. One can imagine the salary difference.
ksec 8y ago
Thanks for the Video Link. It answer a lot of the question I had previously. One problem I thought that was not solved were finishing. It turns out they actually do all the finishing before it is shipped. And because the finishing, construction, are all done indoor and in house, my guess is that with Air Condition they will / could work much faster, higher efficiency, and more importantly, there should be less sloppiness. But then Another question I had as shown in the video, wouldn't all the room be limited by the 40Ft Container Size that fits in the truck? How much of those labour, once moved indoor, could be full automated? Can you built a 50 floor + building / Hotel with these modular tech? How does it work in area where you have special construction requirement like earth quake zone. Are the factory mobilise? i.e, Assuming this take mainstream, would a manufacture of those unit have to ship 100s of containers across the country to have these fitted? Because all the time saved are now bottlenecked by transportation of these blocks. Are we going to ship them overseas? Making the hotel from 2 years to 9 months sounds like a big Win. But in places like China or Japan. No one has 9 month to wait for a construction. China has a 30 floor hotel built from Zero to fully working hotel in less then 3 months. Other then time and quality, are there any actual cost savings?
- jpao79 8y ago
  I think the strategy is to make the apartment/condo floorpans in units of container shipping dimensions and connect them onsite. The key application appears to be the micro-unit. It can handle the earthquake zone as one developer describes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0fyFtbaQk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0fyFtbaQk It would likely be automated as much as a Tesla car could. You could probably ship from overseas as I suspect the micro units have similar dimensions as a shipping container. I'd imagine building in the midwest (i.e. Idaho/Nevada factory to support West Coast) would probably be more optimal.
- yrb 8y ago
  Depending on how you measure a lot of prefab construction you don't save time overall (design to finished) or end up with better quality. You also tend to up with buildings that will fail earlier due to having a lot more of the most risky components of any built form, joints. I have hope that as designers and tools get better at dealing with the connection detailing and with material/assembly tolerances it will lead to better outcomes in the future. I would really recommend watching "The Building Science of Prefabricated Construction". It does a good job of going over the realities of this form of construction. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIeZlCfweMo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIeZlCfweMo

by jpao79 8y ago

jpao79 8y ago

Here's an advocate in the Bay Area: Solving the housing part of homelessness through the construction of modular, micro-housing is described in the above video by Patrick Kennedy, founder of Panoramic Interests https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0fyFtbaQk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0fyFtbaQk And here's an example in Sunnyvale: http://www.palisadebuilders.com/projects/domain/ http://www.palisadebuilders.com/projects/domain/

DrScump 8y ago
And here's an example in Sunnyvale: All 3 are in San Jose, according to the page.

petra 8y ago

Sadly, the job market is pretty simple: when you make a job easier, workers earn less. And it's true for pre-fab, which replaced unionized trades with automation and non-union factory workers, cutting wages drastically. One can imagine the salary difference.

ksec 8y ago

Thanks for the Video Link. It answer a lot of the question I had previously. One problem I thought that was not solved were finishing. It turns out they actually do all the finishing before it is shipped. And because the finishing, construction, are all done indoor and in house, my guess is that with Air Condition they will / could work much faster, higher efficiency, and more importantly, there should be less sloppiness. But then Another question I had as shown in the video, wouldn't all the room be limited by the 40Ft Container Size that fits in the truck? How much of those labour, once moved indoor, could be full automated? Can you built a 50 floor + building / Hotel with these modular tech? How does it work in area where you have special construction requirement like earth quake zone. Are the factory mobilise? i.e, Assuming this take mainstream, would a manufacture of those unit have to ship 100s of containers across the country to have these fitted? Because all the time saved are now bottlenecked by transportation of these blocks. Are we going to ship them overseas? Making the hotel from 2 years to 9 months sounds like a big Win. But in places like China or Japan. No one has 9 month to wait for a construction. China has a 30 floor hotel built from Zero to fully working hotel in less then 3 months. Other then time and quality, are there any actual cost savings?

jpao79 8y ago
I think the strategy is to make the apartment/condo floorpans in units of container shipping dimensions and connect them onsite. The key application appears to be the micro-unit. It can handle the earthquake zone as one developer describes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0fyFtbaQk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0fyFtbaQk It would likely be automated as much as a Tesla car could. You could probably ship from overseas as I suspect the micro units have similar dimensions as a shipping container. I'd imagine building in the midwest (i.e. Idaho/Nevada factory to support West Coast) would probably be more optimal.
yrb 8y ago
Depending on how you measure a lot of prefab construction you don't save time overall (design to finished) or end up with better quality. You also tend to up with buildings that will fail earlier due to having a lot more of the most risky components of any built form, joints. I have hope that as designers and tools get better at dealing with the connection detailing and with material/assembly tolerances it will lead to better outcomes in the future. I would really recommend watching "The Building Science of Prefabricated Construction". It does a good job of going over the realities of this form of construction. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIeZlCfweMo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIeZlCfweMo