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A new prefabricated modular building solution by WZMH Architects could change the way buildings are constructed in urban areas.
Based in Toronto, Canada, WZMH Architects and its research and development lab Sparkbird have teamed up with a Canadian consortium to create a prefabricated, modular, precast solution called Speedstac for mid- to highrise residential buildings.
They can be used to construct new modular buildings up to 30 storeys tall, and interestingly, replace damaged sections of buildings in Ukraine by ‘grafting’ new residential units into existing structures.
“I think we’ve all seen images on the Internet and in the news of these apartment buildings throughout Ukraine that have been hit by missiles and partially damaged… and fully damaged or fully destroyed,” explained Zenon Radewych, principal at WZMH Architects.
“We were looking at our [modular building] Speedstac solution, looking at those images and realized, ‘hey, wait a minute. We could probably go to some of those buildings and remove the portions that have been damaged… and basically then reinsert our Speedstac modules and repair these buildings and quickly get them back up to where they were pre-war.”
Several Ukrainian architects relocated to Canada and joined the WZMH as a consequence of the war.
They were working on the modular building Speedstac solution for North America and realised it could also be used to rebuild their homeland.
“It’s very much a collaboration between Canadians and Ukrainians,” Radewych said. “We’re collaborating with a number of Ukrainians in Ukraine, engineers and architects that are helping us.”
The box units are built from concrete and stacked side-by-side and on top of each other.
The solution is designed to significantly reduce applied finishes such as gypsum board, carpet, tiles and includes a special sandwich layer that eliminates the need for bulkheads.
It also features a special connector which facilitates the process of stacking buildings together, speeds up construction times and makes it cost-effective.
“The concept behind these boxes is basically the floor, the walls and the ceiling is made of concrete so it’s durable. It’s great for acoustics and it’s also great for fire resistance,” said Radewych.
“We’re using high strength concrete. We’re reducing the thickness of the different members, but we’re also exposing the concrete in a way where it’s the final finish so now you can eliminate different finishes: wall finishes, floor finishes, ceiling finishes and save on those materials,” Radewych noted.
“We’ve simply assembled it in a way that makes it unique in terms of how it’s stacked, how it’s connected but it’s made out of the same materials that are used every single day.”
Radewych said testing the connector tolerances is key since 30 modules will be stacked on top of each other and 10 to 15 modules will be connected sideways. A further challenge is weight.
“We’ve been looking at how to reduce the weight of the unit and we’re doing that by reducing the thickness of the concrete where we can and using lightweight concrete.”
