Australian home builder Moov Modular is collaborating with industry partners, under the Prefabrication Hub initiative, to develop and address issues in modular housing processes, including the creation of prefabricated structures, bathroom pods, modular homes, small homes, and smart housing projects.
According to the company, its modular building products have several benefits over traditional on-site construction, with improved thermal, acoustic, and fire safety ratings while dramatically lowering waste and build times.
Dr Jens Goennemann, managing director at Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC), stated that Australia has a great chance to address a number of housing availability and energy efficiency challenges by accelerating the use of modular and prefabricated dwellings by industry.
“By embracing new methods in housing construction, we can offer safe, high quality, sustainable, and an efficient way to meet ambitious Federal and State housing initiatives through manufacturing better buildings,” noted Goennemann.
Along with these benefits, Dr Goennemann said the modular and prefabricated construction processes have the potential to open up skilled and varied job possibilities throughout the whole manufacturing value chain.
This chain includes research and development (R&D), design, logistics, production, distribution, sales, and services.
AMGC Director for Victoria, Mike Grogan, who is leading the Prefabrication Feasibility Study said, “Prefabricated and modular buildings currently account for around five per cent of housing builds in Australia compared to as high as 80-plus per cent in other nations.”
He added, “Our potential to embrace more prefabrication construction could lead to an additional 20,000 new jobs and add over $20 billion to the economy in the longer term.”
Nick O’Neill, managing director at Moov Modular, joined AMGC to work with industry partners through the Prefabrication Hub program because he believed that there are enormous prospects for prefab and modular building in Australia.
“Advanced manufacturing is not just about what you make, but how you make it, therefore prefabricated construction is very much advanced manufacturing,” O’Neill added.
According to him, there is so much intellectual property in how one builds the structure of a module in terms of the connections, fitting the panels together, how one insulates them, as well as incorporating the many trades needed to build a house both in the factory and on the job site.
“We are currently engaging with industry partners, developers, and charities to deliver our products, as we sharpen our focus on providing housing that suits all needs,” the Moov official stated.
He added, “There is significant scope for prefabricated and modular homes to contribute to delivering housing and rental stock to the Australian market by working with larger investors.”
To learn more about AMGC’s Prefabricated Innovation Hub, you may visit this link.
