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The construction industry is vital to Europe’s economy, providing around 18 million direct jobs and contributing to about 9% of the EU’s GDP.

Its importance as a sector has prompted research into making it even more competitive.

 

 

 

 

HEPHAESTUS PROJECT

The HEPHAESTUS project explores the innovative use of robots and autonomous systems in the construction industry.

European researchers have developed a cable-driven robot as part of the project. We went to see the prototype being tested in central Spain.

Eight flexible cables allow the robot to rotate and move in all different directions around a 100 square meter mock-up of a three-storey building facade.

The system can hold several different tools – and is able to install and maintain heavy curtain walls.

It can also hold around a ton of construction materials – and place them across large vertical workspaces with millimetric precision – in very challenging environments.

SYSTEM CHALLENGES

The system can be customised depending on the size of the facade where work will be carried out.

For example, bigger construction surfaces need longer cables – and different geometric patterns.

Scientists working on the European research project say the main challenge is getting the cable tension right, as Mariola Rodriguez Mijangos, an industrial engineer at Tecnalia, explained:

“Once the tension is determined, we can design the rest of the installation. The cost of it depends on the tension.

“The more tension cables require, the more expensive the whole installation will be.

“Our main challenge is to find the minimum tension but at the same time a sufficient amount in the cables for the robot to be able to fulfil its tasks,” she said.

SYSTEM ADVANTAGES

Scientists say the system will increase efficiency and execute tasks with great precision.

As well as installing curtain walls, the robot can also fit solar panels and other construction surfaces.

It also has the capability to scan, paint, clean, and replace damaged parts of a building in need of repair.

“From our point of view as a construction company, this system has two advantages – one is the effective reduction of installation time when building curtain walls,” Joe David Jimenez Vicaria, a civil engineer at Acciona, said.

“This translates into a real profit for the company.

“The second is the reduction, or the minimising, of safety risks. The risk of working at a height is eliminated, or reduced, as there is much less risk of our workers falling from the building site,” he added.

Researchers say their technology could be ready for commercial use on construction sites in five to ten years.

 

Source: Euro News

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Computer scientists at the University of the West of England are developing software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help construction reduce the amount of embodied carbon in their building and infrastructure.

Computer scientists at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) are developing software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help construction companies reduce the amount of embodied carbon in their building and infrastructure projects.

Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Computer scientists at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) are developing software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help construction companies reduce the amount of embodied carbon in their building and infrastructure projects.

The £800,000 ($969,016) project is funded by Innovate UK, the United Kingdom’s innovation agency that works with organizations to drive the science and technology innovations that will grow the UK economy.

UWE Bristol’s Big Data Laboratory is leading the two-year project, which began in November, in collaboration with Winvic Construction and Costain, as well as working with Edgetrix, a start-up that specializes in cloud and AI solutions.

Together, they are developing a program that radically speeds up the process of determining how to reduce embodied carbon at the planning stages. Embodied carbon is the amount of energy (measured in CO₂) consumed during the project’s construction phase and includes emissions from material extraction or manufacturing, transport of materials, among others.

Construction organizations have caps on the amount of CO₂ their construction projects emit, which is in line with the UK government’s objective to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This means that when planning the construction of a bridge or building, they need to estimate the amount of embodied carbon. This can then be reduced by using alternative materials that have a lower carbon footprint.

 

 

However, determining which materials to use can be time-consuming and can take up to several man-hours, the new software will use machine learning to make that calculation and save time.

Lukman Akanbi, who is leading the project and works at UWE Bristol, says, “We are going to collect embodied carbon data from previous projects and machine learning models will be developed to learn the patterns from this data. The system will then be able to come up with alternative materials quicker.

“For a large scale project for example, instead of taking 5-10 hours to work out alternatives, it could initially take only one to two hours and further down the road, once more data is gathered, just a few minutes.”

The work, which started in November, will initially use Winvic and Costain’s commercial premises as test sites for the software. The plan is then to roll out the software to building designers and others working in the construction industry.

Akanbi says, “The objective is to make the system available to building designers and enable them to use it as part of their existing design systems, such as Autodesk Revit. This way they can implement embodied carbon analysis incrementally throughout construction projects’ delivery.”

 

Source: Construction Technology

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Curtin University’s new Legacy Living Lab (L3) is a modular building designed using principles of the circular economy – an environmentally-friendly concept that aims to ‘design out’ waste by including as much recycling and re-use of materials as possible.

Constructed as part of their thesis, Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute PhD candidates Timothy O’Grady and Roberto Minunno, together with Curtin Professor Greg Morrison, worked alongside many industry partners to create L3 as a resource to support and inform the building industry on different construction methodologies, test new products and review the performance of materials, including their energy consumption, automation, and effects on building wellness.

 

 

The L3, located at Development WA’s East Village development in Knutsford, Fremantle, was designed to be flexible, sustainable, and can be fully disassembled, and that many of the building’s materials were recycled, including the original 100 year-old Jarrah staircase from the Dingo Flour Mill and carpet tiles reclaimed from a Perth CBD office space.

“In Australia, the construction industry is responsible for about 30 percent or 20.4 million tonnes of annual waste. Although it’s a significant and largely ignored issue, this is also an opportunity,” says O’Grady.

“The circular economy concept sits at the heart of the L3’s design and construction and reduces waste by incorporating many fortuitous finds and generous donations, giving real meaning to the phrase ‘one person’s trash is another’s treasure’.”

“The 17 tonne steel frames we used to construct L3 actually came from a project that went bankrupt and were originally destined to be recycled. We were able to redesign L3 to incorporate these frames, putting them to good use.”

Other environmentally-friendly features of L3 include the outdoor balcony, made from recycled tyre rubber and plastics; the acoustic ceiling panels, which are 68 percent recycled PET bottles and other plastic materials; and the kitchen benchtop, made from pressed recycled timber.

L3 also features solar panels, an on-site electric vehicle charger, and incorporates water balancing features.

Professor Greg Morrison, also from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute, says that because L3 is modular, it can be relocated – potentially multiple times – which helps it last even longer.

“Once it finally reaches its end of life, around 57 percent of L3 can be deconstructed and reused in other buildings, 25 percent of it can be recycled, and 18 percent disposed of.

“L3 is currently a Curtin University building, used primarily as a space for industry demonstration and a place to carry out important research on new building and material concepts.”

 

Source: Architecture and Design

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Suchit Punnose, Founder and CEO of Red Ribbon Asset Management on the new frontier for housing set to transform emerging markets.

Modular construction as a concept goes back a long way. A really long way. Its origins date back to the 17^th century when colonial Americans wanted their homes built in England. So they were. The disassembled house was shipped across the Atlantic and reconstructed in America.

Fast forward to today, and modular construction is on the cusp of a housing revolution. The growing realisation that modular construction is the answer for environmentally- and budget-friendly housing is changing developer and investor attitudes. This, combined with the disruptive innovation shaking up the 21^st century, is propelling modular housing forward as a solution to the housing problem.

Disruptive innovation + modular construction – a solution to the housing crisis?

The most successful business models of our time – Amazon, Google, Uber – have completely disrupted previously solid markets. And the outcome is a radical shift of the way we live, work and function.

These businesses are successful because they began with a disruptive premise. They continued through market scepticism and took the time to cultivate a change in consumer mindset. Disruptive innovation is driven by invention and market demands. When it comes to housing, there is an urgent need for affordable but high-quality residential units around the world.

Modular construction at scale is the answer. Red Ribbon’s Modulex Global is an example of advanced, modern modular building technology. High quality, carbon-neutral and smart homes can be constructed off-site to provide a solution to the global housing crisis.

Changing developer and investor mindsets

As cities continue to grow exponentially, so do the numbers of people lacking housing. According to Yale University, national reports suggest that more than 150 million people around the world are homeless. The relentless trend of urbanisation underlines the inefficiency of the housing market in both developed and emerging economies.

Statistics from the UN show that:

• Between 1950 and 2018, the number of people living in urban areas increased from 751 million to 4.2 billion (more than half of the entire population).
• By 2050, this figure will rise to around 68%.
• This will be mostly in the developing and emerging economies.
• We will see extremely high rates of urban expansion in the Middle East, across Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.
• India, China and Nigeria will account for more than third of urban population growth between now and 2050.

In light of rising homelessness, attitudes towards modular housing are changing. According to US consultants McKinsey, more than 80% of developers are committed at some level to modular construction models. The lower cost, higher quality at-speed housing solution makes the most commercial and practical sense for a better housing future.

 

Access to adequate housing is the basis for a successful economy

Access to affordable housing, anywhere in the world, is the foundation of a working society and economy. And while what is considered ‘affordable’ varies from country to country, the broad idea that housing should meet certain parameters is accepted everywhere.

Housing should offer security, privacy, structural safety, access to water, heating, electricity and sanitation. It also needs situating near to amenities such as the workplace and hospitals. Data from McKinsey shows that an estimated 330 million households around the world have no access to quality, affordable housing. If major steps are not taken, this could increase to 440 million over the next five years.

The housing challenge is felt the most in emerging economies and cities that have high levels of substandard housing. Investment in truly affordable construction is still far too low in emerging markets. Developers and construction companies use outmoded tech and remain increasingly focused on high-value projects that encourage a culture of inefficiency.

Changing the mindset of developers is key so that they focus on affordable, mid-market housing projects on a massive scale. In India alone, around 1.77 million people are desperately in need of housing despite the work being done by the Government’s Affordable Housing Programme.

An innovative solution to a growing problem

The smarter, more efficient technology contained in modular construction is the clear answer to the global housing crisis. Units fabricated off-site are delivered in ready-to-build panels and fitted together. Modular units can be built in a controlled environment, resulting in higher quality standards along with lower waste levels and costs.

We established Modulex to harness the constantly evolving technology to deliver housing projects at a third of the traditional cost. Establishing the world’s biggest steel modular building factory in India is a major step towards fundamentally disrupting the housing construction market.

If every residential building project in India used modular housing, they would be completed faster, at a lower cost and with reduced carbon emissions. And while we’re focusing primarily on emerging markets for now, there is also huge potential for modular housing in the UK and Europe. het.

Founded in 2007, Red Ribbon Asset Management Plc (‘Red Ribbon’) is an Indo-British financial services group building on the legacy of historical, cultural and socio-economic ties between the two countries. As India’s global economic role has burgeoned and it looks to a golden decade of growth – following the pattern of China’s trajectory template 20 years ago – the UK is shifting into a post-Brexit phase where trading and commercial relationships outside the EU are coming to the fore.

Source: Enterprise Times

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NHF’s Building Better alliance hunts for manufacturers to join £600m offsite homes framework

Building Better, the National Housing Federation-supported alliance of housing associations developing offsite solutions for the social housing sector, has begun a search for three manufacturers to deliver its first framework for modern methods of construction (MMC).

Procurement for Housing is working with Building Better to develop the £600m volumetric framework which will go live in Spring 2021. The 25 housing associations that make up the alliance have committed to manufacturing 800 homes via the new framework and they have a broader pipeline of 4,500 properties that will be produced using modern methods of construction over the term of the five-year framework. Building Better is keen for more housing providers to join the alliance, so this pipeline may grow further over the next few years.

The framework is for ‘MMC Category 1 Construction Systems’, covering pre-manufactured, three-dimensional buildings that are factory-produced and delivered to site. There are three lots: low rise houses, medium rise flats and a combination of both, with one manufacturer to be appointed to each lot on a direct call-off basis.

Procurement for Housing will conduct a ‘competitive dialogue’ with interested manufacturers, discussing options with them and listening to their feedback on what the market has to offer before the final specification is compiled. Manufacturers will then be invited to submit final tenders for a place on the framework.

The procurement process will conclude in Spring 2021 with successful bidders appointed to the volumetric framework on a direct-award basis, meaning they won’t have to engage in further competition to win contracts with individual housing providers. It is hoped that five offsite schemes will be in the ground by the end of 2021.

Procurement on a separate ‘MMC Category 2 Construction Systems’ framework will begin in Spring / Summer 2021. This will cover pre-manufactured two-dimensional panelised systems that are assembled on site to form 3D structures.

Trina Chakravarti, Project Director of Building Better said: “Offsite manufacturing will only work in social housing through meaningful collaboration. That means housing providers aggregating their demand so manufacturers can sustain their factories. But it also means the sector engaging with manufacturers and being open to the development process rather than having a predetermined idea of the product they want.”

 

 

Steve Malone, CEO at Procurement for Housing said: “One reason why offsite construction has failed in the past is the lack of genuine partnership work with manufacturers at the procurement phase. Many social landlords approach suppliers with a fully formed idea of the home they want; but being so prescriptive doesn’t work in an offsite market that is still developing. We’ve designed a procurement process that allows honest discussions with manufacturers before a tender spec is finalised.”

 In September the Government announced that it will make modern methods of construction central to its new £11.5bn affordable homes programme. Social landlords that sign up to ‘strategic partnerships’ under the programme will have to use offsite manufacturing to produce at least 25% of their new homes.

For more information go to @BuildingBetterX