COVID-19 | The 4 reasons Modular is the chosen construction response.

The devastating effects of COVID-19 have been felt hard by the NHS and Healthcare estates. This has lead to a massive surge in both temporary/ hire and permanent modular solutions, with one of the leading modular providers reporting for the first time in their history their entire hire fleet is on order or committed to a scheme. Using modular construction to respond quickly to a medical emergency isn't new, many hurricane and earthquake responses include a level of modular emergency medical facilities, but we are seeing something on a far larger scale.

China and the 1,000-bed Huoshenshan and 1,600-bed Leishenshan hospitals in Wuhan kicked everything off, 2 mostly prefabricated hospitals reportedly completed after 10 days.

It seems obvious why Modular has been the favoured approach, its quick! right? I think in the UK there is a little bit more to this, and can be broken down into: Champion | Response | Control | Perception

Champion | Healthcare and the NHS have been an early champion of modular, most of the greatest hospitals in the UK with have a modular building of some sort. the health care sector is probably the lead sector when it comes to modular innovation and pushing what off site construction can offer.

The pressures of COVID-19 are felt across all parts of any NHS trust, with a key action for estates teams to find space for the impacts of COVID-19.

This means that when the trusts put faith in the estates team, they select a solution they have faith in as they already have a level of experience and expectation. To put it simply they can select modular as a high level solution because it has worked before (in somewhat less pressing times), and those same reasons it worked before are why it will work again.

Response | The response from Modular contractors was instant, quality modular construction is in somewhat of a boom, with a number of sectors pushing for modular based solutions. Education, Healthcare and Housing being some of the most prevalent. This has recently had a sizeable impact in the capabilities for modular contractors, their in house programme, planning, logistics and design teams are strong. In tandem with the design capabilities is a good understanding of requirements, most Modular contractors have delivered a number NHS projects previously and have a designed solution, this is because of the buy in from NHS clients championing the method over the last few years.

However by far the greatest immediate response factor is the hire fleet, most modular contractors are split in 2, hire and permanent buildings. The modular contractors with substantial hire fleets have been able to issue out buildings within days as the stock is stored in their yard. This is followed up by specialist units, either adapted hire fleet or a bespoke new build.

Control | All of the above is fairly pointless if these buildings cannot be manufactured, delivered and installed during the lock down restrictions. Quality control has always been a huge plus for Modular Construction, and in the same way has been used for social distancing control. The modules are manufactured on a sort of production line, either the module or trades moving to a set point for a set task. The process is closely programme and it seems to have been easy for modular contractors to include further separation of tasks and people within their production facilities.

Its far more difficult to manage this separation on site, this has been evident by more than 30% of all construction works grinding to a halt. Modular construction enables the control and separation on site, as the majority of activities take place in a controlled factory environment, this reduces the number of activities on site. This has seen a number of the Modular contractors gain key worker status and enable the delivery of these vital schemes.

Perception | I find my self constantly challenging peoples perception of modular and volumetric contraction. Everyone seems to have a horror story of a temporary building that's way past its best, whilst I am usually trying to advocate modular as a permanent sustainable solution. However in this situation the perception of modular construction just being a cheap, flimsy temporary solution is really helpful. We are all playing it week by week currently and the thought of this going on for some time is unbearable. So when people hear that the a building erected to deal with COVID-19 is modular its helpful that the immediate perception is of a temporary building.

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