CAMPH INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS: BUILDING THE CLASSROOMS OF THE FUTURE

The rapid population growth that Australia is experiencing has created a strain on education infrastructure, especially the provision of classrooms for schools. In NSW the government student population has hovered around 750,000 to 800,000 for three decades, however it is now forecast to rise by 21% to 944,500 by 2031. The trend in Victoria is similar where 1547 government schools that include more than 38,000 individual buildings are currently educating more than 600,000 students. There is an urgent need to deliver new schools, fast.

To keep up with demand, the Victorian Government is making an unprecedented investment in school infrastructure, including the roll-out of world-class prefabricated modular classrooms as part of the Permanent Modular School Buildings program. The initial program is replacing up to 100 school buildings over a four-year period that are in poor condition or have other risk attributes such as high amounts of asbestos.

The Centre for Advanced Manufacturing of Prefabricated Housing (CAMPH) partner BHA Project Management is a consultancy providing design and project management to the construction industry. BHA Project Management is assisting the Victorian Government with the delivery of the 100 modular school buildings over a four-year period.

During the first year of the four-year program 30 permanent modular buildings have been ordered and are in progress, with the remaining 70 projects to be completed over the next three years. A panel of 15 companies manufacture the modular school buildings including CAMPH industry partners Fleetwood and Prebuilt.

The modern, modular classrooms offer state-of-the-art learning spaces that bear little resemblance to the old style portable classrooms. Portable classrooms have a design requirement of being moved by as many as 10 times over a nominal 25-year life, whereas permanent modular classrooms are deemed a permanent build.

The modular school buildings are delivered as hybrid projects to take advantage of the benefits of offsite manufacturing but rely on a modest contribution of site-based activities such as bricklaying for architectural reasons to provide the visual appeal of a conventional build.  The site installation works are typically outsourced to contractors, although manufacturers generally have a team onsite to assist.  This model also makes high-quality classrooms accessible in regional areas that may not have the skilled labour for conventional site construction.

The modern, modular classrooms offer stateof-the-art learning spaces that bear little resemblance to the old style portable classrooms.  Portable classrooms have a design requirement of being moved by as many as 10 times over a nominal 25-year life, whereas permanent modular classrooms are deemed a permanent build.” Dr David Heath National Technical Manager – CAMPH, and Roberto Minunno, PhD candidate – Curtin University 

A key challenge for the delivery of school buildings is doing so during term breaks when students are not on campus.

This not only minimises disruption caused by noise and dust, it also avoids safety risks around the delivery and storage of building materials and site construction activities.  The delivery of prefabricated buildings during term breaks eliminates these risks.  BHA has a framework for the delivery of these classrooms that have an average area of between 300 – 1000 square metres.  This includes 20 weeks for design plus 17 weeks for construction which is broken into 10 weeks manufacturing, one week for delivery, five weeks onsite, and one week for handover.

CAMPH researchers at the University of Melbourne including research fellow Dr Tharaka Gunawardena are working with BHA Project Management to help improve delivery of the modular classrooms. Many of the lessons learned from prefabricated houses and commercial buildings are being directly transferred to modular school buildings.

Successfully integrating advanced manufacturing practices such as design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) can vastly improve the delivery of modular buildings. Activities have included reviewing the structural design, thermal and acoustic performance as well as indoor environment quality to ensure a high-quality learning environment is built.

Successfully integrating advanced manufacturing practices such as design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) can vastly improve the delivery of modular buildings.  Activities have included reviewing the structural design, thermal and acoustic performance as well as indoor environment quality to ensure a high-quality learning environment is built.

The research is also monitoring and reviewing current practice when it comes to transportation, on-site planning and installation. These findings will help to optimise BHA Project Management’s framework for the delivery of permanent modular school buildings, and any insights will be passed on to the Victorian Government.

CAMPH PhD candidate Roberto Minunno from Curtin University is working with Professor Greg Morrison on modular classrooms through their collaboration with Fleetwood that is investigating how the application of the circular economy (CE) framework can benefit modular classrooms. The goal of this project is to create a model that instructs the modular building industry on how to design their products for disassembly so that the components and materials may be reused, relocated, or upcycled. This research will define opportunities to minimise waste produced during the construction and demolition phases. This achievement will not only translate into environmental benefits, it will also yield financial savings, allowing the industry to create value from more than one use.

The CE framework takes advantage of tools such as the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the Material Flow Accounting (MFA), and the thermal performance evaluation. The LCA studies the materials, tools, and services involved in the production chain of any product to evaluate its environmental impact. The MFA examines the volume of materials used in the creation of a product and studies how they will be treated once the product reaches its final stages of use.

The traditional building industry has many barriers to becoming circular. Monolithic structural forms are examples of buildings that cannot be deconstructed. Additionally, for architectural reasons all buildings are unique which limits standardisation and the compatibility of components for use in other buildings. Central to achieving a circular building industry is a supply chain management or business model to clarify how components circulate after being deconstructed or disassembled.

Work in progress: a school project in Moe, regional Victoria. CAMPH is collaborating on the creation of a modular building model entailing design for disassembly and re-use.

The CAMPH partnership with Fleetwood is pivotal in this research and the provision of a recent current project as a case study provides a point of comparison for redesign work. The modular classrooms research is exploring how the prefabricated construction industry can eliminate the barriers to circular economy.

It is envisaged that the CE framework being developed for modular classrooms will eventually be adapted and adopted for the broader prefab industry that will make the economics and environmental credentials of prefab even more attractive.

It is hoped that the research being undertaken on modular classrooms will help pave the way for modern modular construction to become the preferred delivery method for public education infrastructure in Australia. ■

Dr David Heath
National Technical Manager
ARC Centre for Advanced Manufacturing of Prefabricated Housing

Roberto Minunno PhD candidate ARC Centre for Advanced Manufacturing of Prefabricated Housing – Curtin University