While the modular construction system has been popularized in China, Japan, Europe, and Asia, it has been slow to find a significant market in the U.S.
This trend has started gaining momentum. Developers are realizing the construction costs and schedule benefits with repetitious projects such as Student Housing, Affordable Housing, Market-Rate Multi-Family and Hotels.
There are many benefits to Modular Construction:
- Less Construction Time: A recent 465-bed modular Student Housing project in Poughkeepsie, NY was stacked in 40 days.
- Less Waste and More Sustainable: The majority of the project is being constructed in a controlled warehouse environment, that is more efficient and creates less construction waste.
- Less Invasive Construction: When projects are located near sensitive neighborhoods, modular construction creates less noise and construction-related traffic and congestion.
- Reduced Construction Costs: When the project contains enough scale and repetition, construction costs can be reduced; the case study above, in Poughkeepsie, was constructed for $100/ square foot.
Modular Construction is not appropriate for every project and it has struggled to find its niche in smaller, more design-sensitive projects. This technique will become prolific in the northern states first, where the building season is shorter and labor unions often increase labor costs. The U.S. needs to have more factories capable of constructing quality modular units in order for this building system to “scale” quickly. In foreign countries, steel modular construction is popular and cost-efficient. Technology is available to stack self-supporting steel modules 30 stories high.
As this construction system becomes “greener” and more sustainable, it will represent a larger percentage of construction in the U.S. by 2030, with many of the modules being imported from foreign countries.
ODA designed the first modular hotel on the East Coast for Marriott in 2017, AC Hotel by Marriott, a 4-story, 123 room hotel in downtown Chapel Hill, opened in the fall of 2017.
