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Are prefab homes the future of housing?
Prefabrication is a method which consists of building houses off-site, in a factory, as opposed to on-site, which is the traditional way of doing it, with workers going to a construction site everyday from the very beginning till the end of the project. An example of this trend is the current project deployed in London borough of Croydon in the UK. If you go to 101 George Street in, you’ll see an impressive building made with steel and glass: the world’s tallest towers are being built using modular manufacturing: The two towers will be 38 and 44 storeys high and are expected to contain 546 flats. It’s quite of a performance. Factory-built housing may have had negative associations with mass market, uninspiring and low quality constructions for decades. But this is changing. With new technologies and materials, off-site construction is promising to offer not only affordable houses but also sustainable and aethetically challenging homes. It defenitely has advantages over traditional construction. So, is it the future of housing?
Speakers:
- Elin Sondergard, Strategic Project Leader, Saint-Gobain.
- Gilles Retsin, London based architect and designer investigating new architectural models that engage with the potential of increased computational power.
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Building sustainable highrise-towers in Thailand
03:14||Saison 3While a large part of the population lives in highrise-buildings in Thailand, the construction sector is currently looking for solutions to build more sustainable towers. That is what Bundit Pradabsook explains to us. He is Commissioner of The Association of Siamese Architects under Royal Patronage.
Adapting buildings to high temperatures in Mexico
03:58||Saison 3At the time of global warming, Mexico is looking for solutions to build buildings that are both sustainable and comfortable despite very high temperatures. That is what Ernesto Infante Barbosa explains to us. He is the Coordinator of the ESG committee at the National Compliance Commission A.C. of Mexico.
Transiting to sustainable construction methods in South Africa
03:58||Saison 3Today, in South Africa the prevailing construction methodologies are still very much traditional material focused and the sector is looking for alternative solutions to accelerate the transition to sustainable construction methods and the use of lighter materials. We are listening to Mlondolozi Hempe. He is a building performance specialist, and his work focuses on building performance design and green building certification.
Renovating rather than rebuilding in Singapore
03:58||Saison 3Singapore city-state is in the process of renewing a large part of its housing stock and the sector is trying to find how to articulate those constructions with sustainability. That is what Joy Gai explains to us. She is Asia Pacific Programmes Head for the World Green Building Council.
Converting workspaces in the United Kingdom
03:58||Saison 3After the pandemic, office districts were left abandoned in the United Kingdom. How can these workspaces be converted to be used for other purposes? Can these offices become housings or event spaces? Guillermo Guzman – an architect and assistant professor at the University of Nottingham – talks to us about the issues at stake.
Building new care institutions for the elderly in China
03:46||Saison 3In China, the number of people over the age of 65 has reached 190 million, and will increase rapidly to 390 million in 2050. To respond to the social challenges this situation involves, the country is currently building new types of multi-functional and inclusive care institutions for the elderly. Sima Lei is an architect and associated professor at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University and she talks to us about these plans.
Building healthy dwellings in Germany
03:57||Saison 3In order to compensate the lack of housing, Germany will have to build 300,000 dwellings a year over the coming decade. Helmut Köttner is Technical Director of the Sentinel Haus Institute and he explains to us the different health and well-being challenges to which these dwellings will have to respond.
Adapting constructions to temperature gaps in Sweden
02:56||Saison 3During Swedish winters, temperatures can drop to almost -25 Celsius degrees, and rise to 30 during the summer. How can these differences be managed? How to design buildings that are both sustainable and comfortable, whatever the temperature? Let's listen to what Monica von Schmalensee – an architect and Senior Advisor – has to say.
Facing earthquakes in Türkiye
03:47||Saison 3Earthquakes are a major challenge for Türkiye and the country is currently considering the best solutions to deal with this issue. How is it possible to make buildings strong enough to withstand them? How can existing buildings be reinforced? We asked these questions to Alper Ilki, a consultant and professor of structural and earthquake engineering at Istanbul Tech University.