2023-09-12 05:26:46
Industrialized construction presents a solution to the challenges of the sector in an uncertain scenario. The developers demand that these buildings must be competitive in price.
These are difficult times for the construction sector. Problems such as the lack of adaptation of the model to the digital world, the scarcity of land and the lack of qualified labor raise questions about the future of an essential industry for the Spanish economy. In this context, industrialization emerges as a solution that can help modernize the way buildings are constructed, operated and managed. These aspects were addressed at the Opex/Capex meeting: Advantages of industrialized construction in different types of projects, organized by EXPANSIN in collaboration with vita, the industrial construction company of Grupo Avintia.
Plagued by problems such as labor shortages, “the construction sector must reinvent itself to be able to continue putting products on the market,” said José Ignacio Esteban, general director of vita. For this reason, the company has developed a comprehensive model of industrialized construction based on intense collaboration between suppliers and adapted to the demands of the promoters: “We understood that it was not about industrializing for the sake of it, but rather creating a type of product that was sustainable. and fit into their financial economic model.
Benefits
One of the main advantages that this system offers has to do with time. As Esteban indicated, “it allows us to work between 30% and 40% faster than in a traditional project: we are capable of doing a project in about 16 months, even less.”
Industrialized construction also contributes to optimizing costs and avoiding inefficiencies at different points in the chain, thanks to much higher precision in measurements and better coordination between all the actors participating in each project. Jaume Alcover, marketing director of Baxi, explained that “the installation of air conditioning equipment tends to undergo important changes” with respect to what is foreseen in traditional construction, which devalue the final result. On the other hand, Alcover stressed that “industrialized construction solves many of these problems and guarantees that it is executed with the quality of the original design.”
Along the same lines, the integration of energy consumption monitoring and management systems promotes energy efficiency and optimizes decision-making based on data. This was indicated by Anglica Tarrasa, head of the promoters and architects channel at Schneider Electric, who noted that “working in a collaborative environment facilitates price control without affecting the quality of the product.” In addition, it added other benefits such as predictive maintenance and “consumption control, which facilitates the awareness of the end user” through the bonus or penalty of consumption habits.
Historically, investors have prioritized a good location and a price that ensured profitability, but “we are facing a paradigm shift driven by the rise in energy costs that has skyrocketed consumption,” said Silvia Ferro, senior consultant at Kley Campus, a firm that manages and invests in student residences. Although the professionalization of promoters has increased, these after-sales quality problems generate significant additional costs. Ferro highlighted that “industrialized construction allows this type of risk to be controlled.”
Roberto Campos, general director of Grupo Avintia Real Estate, stressed that “in these times of uncertainty, industrialized construction is the only solution for the development of the real estate business.” In this sense, he stated that “if there were no industrialized product like vita, which does not require as much labor and makes costs non-variable, it would not be viable.” Likewise, sensorization plays a key role for its exploitation, since it allows us to know exactly what is happening in the building.
“We try to make the building sustainable throughout its life cycle but, above all, to have very low consumption,” said Jos Ignacio Esteban. The CEO of vita suggested that it is necessary to find a balance between operating and operating costs: “When someone pays for affordable housing but has high energy consumption, their operating costs will be very high.”
In the current scenario, Jaume Alcover pointed out that “volatility means that no one can anticipate what energy costs will be in the future.” In buildings such as hotels and residences, where the client spends but it is the operator who pays, “it is essential that they require low maintenance to ensure their viability,” stressed Roberto Campos.
This is a notable challenge in a context in which developers claim that these buildings must be competitive in price as a fundamental requirement. As Silvia Ferro recognized, “we cannot accept extra costs: at the moment we are not willing to pay more because money costs.”
In short, in the face of the challenges involved in the transformation of the sector, “the answer lies in innovation, digitalization and industrialized construction that allows us to create processes and take advantage of the full potential of R&D and sensors to turn it into data,” Anglica Terrasa concluded.
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