I’m not convinced, I worked for many years in the modular building industry and we had several different modular house or dwelling options but they never took off. Problem is that against traditional build sqm for sqm it always costs a bit more so the only advantage is when the client have some land that they need clearing and a building erected almost immediately then modular works well as these are built off site before the demolition then shipped to site and just services coupled up etc so much quicker than trad. But most developers aren’t fussed about time and just want CHEAP. Plus you get planners who insist on little features that deviate from a modular factory approach and the cost ramps again.
The system works well for temporary or even permanent buildings in schools for instance where they only have the summer hols to put a building or two up and for hotels where every module is the same. Trust me we saw so many schemes slip away because we couldn’t accommodate a unique hipped roof of bespoke window detail or even meet the code levels etc. the running cost of a huge factory when you have no orders is crippling which is another reason builders go trad or timber frame.
Also the big builders… Mc alpine etc are evil buggers who screw the modular firms down to unrealistic costs so many firms have gone under and quite often mid project … Olympic village is an example as there were a few went under during that. Other country’s are producing very cheaply but there labour and overhead costs are a fraction of ours and some builders are shipping across the water rather than using a modular firm from round the corner…. Anyway rantette over.
