DECEMBER 2022CONSTRUCTIONTECHREVIEW.COM 19Introduction, A clip of history from UAE's experience:Early seventies of the last century witnessed the official formation of the United Arab Emirates. Since that point of time, construction was of the most active industries in the area driven by the economy growth and the governmental policies of the GCC countries in general and UAE in particular.The city of Dubai is well known as the most rapidly grown city that tremendously spread over 40km length along its coast in less than 50 years by which the old Diera city joined Jebel Ali to form the current Dubai.In addition to adoption of the latest construction methodologies such as post tension, precast, modular façade and offsite manufacturing systems in general, the industry couldn't have achieved such large speed in construction without increasing the workforce.Offsite Manufacturing growth in UAE:Fasttrack construction methodologies gradually grew up compared to the overall speed of construction during the seventies and eighties while the conventional methodologies were dominant with workforce quantum driven by the low wage rate of iported manpower.While the first precast clad tower was built in Dubai in 1978, it took thirty years for the market place to adopt precast as construction option with very shy spread till late 1990's.Entering the 21st century with further demand on construction supported by the growing economy and the rapidly escalated real estate demand, marked the was point of change when faster construction systems became extremely important and offsite manufacturing,represented by precast and modularised prefabricated Fcade elements, demonstrated its capability to balance between time and cost.From precast to Modular Construction:The construction market witnessed another move towards lesser manpower utilization across the country responding to the government initiative to control the population of imported manpower.Here comes modular construction as the solution since it reduces manpower through enhanced productivity and best quality provided thanks to the controlled factory environment and better working surrounds.This shift is easy to reach due to the similarity between precast and Modular Construction from operation process perspective whereby the two systems are similar in offsite manufacturing principle, precast and modular construction are based on repetition, precast elements can be easily utilized in modular systems as they are the raw material for modular assembly and both systems rely heavily on design and engineering outputs.What is modular construction?Modular Construction refers to a construction method that applies to Buildings and civil works that seeks to maximize the off-site prefabricated components of the building, minimize the on-site construction activities, and minimize the potential for rework on site. The ratio of off-site verses on-site activities varies from project to project. This concept is meant to deliver structurally complete building units MODULAR CONSTRUCTION AND AUTOMATION IN CONSTRUCTIONBy Mohamad Yasser Baaj, CEO, B3G Engineering ServicesMohamad Yasser BaajFig. 1, Dubai growth over 29 years in photos.CXOINSIGHTS
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