Easier and Faster Construction
Pre-fabricated construction components offer the construction industry many advantages such as low development and manufacturing costs, simple repairs and installation processes and increased flexibility, since the building can be adapted to meet new requirements simply by rearranging the building sections.
Trend: Modular Construction
In metropolitan areas in particular, construction sites can be a serious obstacle to the dynamics of the city. Pre-fabricated construction components make it possible to significantly reduce construction site size and building time, thus also minimizing the negative impact of construction on the surroundings. Building sections make rebuilding and conversion faster and easier and provide a flexibility and adaptivity not possible with conventional construction techniques. Practical applications in this context are for example mobile noise protection walls or shelter accommodations.
Multifunctional Building Sections
These construction all-rounders are on the rise: The facades of the future not only provide protection against the weather, they can also contain shading and ventilation elements or help generate energy with photovoltaic modules. When renovating residential buildings for energy efficiency, prefabricated modules such as multifunctional window elements do more than just reduce on-site installation time and thus cut down on inconvenience to residents: Underneath the sill of the window in the self-supporting module is a removable technology box for the installation of components such as heat exchangers, decentral micro-heating pumps and ventilation filters, water pipes, power outlets, ventilation ducts or Internet cables. This eliminates a large number of building tasks such as laying pipes and routing cabling.
Lightweight and Sustainable Materials
The trend towards more flexibility and adaptivity of buildings places new demands on materials as well. In addition to lightweight building materials such as membranes, the Building Innovation Alliance is researching functionalized fiber composites as well as subsystems and hybrid construction systems using renewable raw materials. New joining technologies such as adhesives and adhesive systems as well as laser welding processes enable innovative utilization of the new materials.