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When a new apartment building is constructed, you might see workers building it one piece of lumber or brick at a time. But some developers will truck in and assemble entire rooms or even whole apartments that have been built off-site.
Weigel: “You can kind of think of it like stacking Lego bricks of fully formed units.”
Charlotte Weigel is with the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships. She says this approach, called modular construction, makes it easier to build more affordable, climate-friendly housing.
Weigel: “You’re able to gain economies and efficiencies by working on similar structures all at the same time.”
It allows builders to minimize construction waste and save time – which ultimately also saves money.
Weigel: “As you lower the cost to build, you increase the affordability of the housing.”
And because a lot of the off-site work can be automated and done with robots, it’s possible to make precision cuts that create tighter seals around windows and other openings.
Weigel: “The better air sealing you get, the less heating and cooling losses you have, the less energy you use, the less emissions you have from operations of the building.”
So modular construction could help communities build more affordable and energy-efficient homes.
Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media
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