Pre-fabricated, Prefinished Volumetric Construction or PPVC is being used around the world to achieve major savings in construction time and manpower usage.
One example noted in Today Online is the just completed expansion to the Crown Plaza Hotel at Jewel Changi Airport in Singapore. The project was designed by the Singaporean firm WOHA and through the use of PPVC was able to achieve substantial savings in both time and labor. WOHA, “a Singapore based architectural practiced founded in 1994, has gained global recognition for their integration of environmental and social principles at every stage of the design and construction process.” They have “designed a diverse amount of innovative and highly influential projects that have been built in a number of cities and countries, and the firm’s best known projects have been widely publicized as benchmarks for sustainable design.” This work shows that they are innovative in the use of construction techniques that help establish new benchmarks that can be used around the world.
According to an article in BDC Network, “The new building was Singapore’s first private sector commercial project to use Pre-fabricated, Pre-finished Volumetric Construction (PPVC), which led to the 243 bed addition being built in just 26 days. WOHA designed the original 320-room hotel as well as the 243-room, 103,495-sf addition.”
The article continues. “The use of the PPVC method slashed manpower requirements on site by as much as 45%, reduced overall construction time by 17%, and accomplished both of these with about 40% in manpower savings.”
That is a substantial savings and perhaps the reason that other hoteliers like Marriott are planning to use similar construction techniques to build 55 of their next gen hotels.
Although pre-fabrication in commercial construction has been around for decades, it seems to have gained a wider usage in an era when labor shortages and industrial methods are both influencing commercial and residential construction.
As we have previously reported, pre-fabrication is becoming more widely used in expanding healthcare construction where tolerances and time are critical.
As the skilled labor shortage expands and construction costs escalate, the use of PPVC might be a solution that can help solve both problems around the globe.
