Modular Construction Is A Good Solution For Urban Residential Projects
Author : SJ Modules Feb 01, 2021
Modular construction may also be used for town houses and residential buildings of all types. The project shown uses groups of 2 and 3 modules to create each apartment of 60 to 80m2 floor area. The modules are clad in a variety of materials and steel balconies are connected to the modules.
3 and 4 storey housing using modular construction
Residential buildings in urban areas
In urban areas, residential buildings are often complex in form in that they are often designed to fit in tight infill sites or to replace existing buildings. The nature of urban projects is also that the urban street scape has to be part of the architectural concept. Also, many sites are next to busy roads and railway lines and so questions of isolation to external noise and vibration are important design issues.
Harlequin Court , Covent Garden – Curved façade attached to Slimdek construction
The important design requirements for urban residential buildings are:
Structural systems that can accommodate a variable plan form and avoids obstructions or existing services in the ground
Light weight construction systems to minimize ground works
Fast construction systems with minimum disturbance to the neighboring buildings
Variety of architectural treatments, such as curved facades and roofs, and creation of private space by balconies, etc.
Minimum floor-to-floor height to keep within planning limits for overall building height
Street-scape created by ground floor retail units with a compatible structural grid to the residential levels above
Safe access and use of lifts and other public space.
Good examples of the use of steel in urban residential projects are shown. The nature of this type of building is that floor spans are in the range of 5 to 7m, and allow for flexibility in the positioning of internal walls to optimise on the layout of the apartments. Because of this, steel framed systems, such as Slimdek, have proved popular because they provide a floor depth of less than 400mm, and achieve excellent acoustic insulation and fire resistance. A project in central London using Slimed is shown.
Internal and external walls may use light steel and are movable to suit the client’s and user’s demands. This can be important to housing associations who may wish to vary the accommodation that they offer depending on family sizes.
Modular construction is a good solution for urban residential projects, which require extremely fast, high quality construction that is achieved by off-site manufacture. In this case, the architectural concept has to be such that the repetitive use of modules of similar size can be used efficiently. A good example of a 5 to 8 storey modular residential project in Dublin is shown. Light steel structure used for 3 storey housing.
