Please turn your device to portrait.
Modscape to build a 20,000 sqm advanced robotic offsite construction manufacturing facility in Essendon Fields.
Melbourne-based modular builder, Modscape, has launched their vision of advanced offsite construction for Australia, and it’s set to redefine the construction landscape with the company embracing advanced robotics, digital twins, and laying the groundwork for parametric design and construction. (main pic: Jan Gyrn and the team from Modscape: taking offsite construction to the future.)
They’ve taken a 15-year lease on the purpose-built 20,000 sqm offsite manufacturing facility in Essendon Fields, 15 km from Melbourne’s CBD, with the option for an additional 15 years.
The new offsite manufacturing facility is one of two new buildings on the site which are owned by the Fox and Beck families; the other building is a speculative-built 5,500 sqm warehouse. Both buildings are to be built by Sydney-based contractor FDC.
The move, scheduled for March 2024, from their present manufacturing base in Brooklyn to Essendon Fields is a bold statement of growth and commitment from where Modscape started.
Jan Gyrn, chief executive and part-owner of Modscape, said, “Our first Modscape project was valued at $200,000, and it’s been a long and amazing journey since the start. We now turn over now in a week, what we turned over in an entire year in our first year of operation. The most exciting part of it is the development in technology and the team that we’ve put together. It has made us what we are today.”
When we started Modscape, I sat down and designed six different types of houses, a one bedroom through to a four bedroom. And I thought, you know what? I’m just going to go and sell those six houses and we’re going to make them in the factory and deliver them to the site.”
I couldn’t sell one house. I couldn’t convince anyone to buy one. And invariably what happened is that everybody wanted to make changes and customise what it was that they wanted designed and built. So, we went about developing a series of details and systems that allowed us to create any type of space, whether it be a house, a hospital or a police station.”
According to Gyrn, its lessons-learnt from those nascent days that repeatable volumetric designs will underscore the new robotic lines productivity and market acceptance.
“Modscape is a little unique in that we operate in more sectors than any other manufacturer in Australia. However, we do see that over the next five years that a large portion of our turnover will come from what we call ‘commercial-based accommodation projects’. So, social housing, affordable housing, defence accommodation, hotels and resorts.”
We’ll always do the bespoke one-offs, but for the most part, the robotic line particularly, and this facility is set up for large-scale rollouts,” Gyrn told Built Offsite.
With the establishment of Modscape’s robotic division called Modbotics, the move is anticipated to triple its current manufacturing capacity and produce up to 2,000 modules per year.
To realise their vision, Modscape has been working with Swedish-based manufacturing robotic company, Randek, since February 2019 on developing an advanced suite of robotic lines – purpose-made for the manufacture and completion of wall panels. The robots will manufacture open and closed walls, passive house walls, floor and roof cassettes.
The new site is also closer for employees and clients.
“For seven out of 10 staff, the new facility will be closer to home. Additionally, Essendon Fields’ proximity to the airport makes it an ideal location for Modscape, as approximately half of our clients are interstate,” said Gyrn.
Sydney-based contractor FDC has been selected as the preferred tenderer for the construction of both buildings at Essendon Fields. The combined construction cost, excluding land, infrastructure, and internal project overheads, is estimated to be around $35 million. Once completed by March next year, the two buildings will have a combined end value of approximately $55 million.
