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How Vienna-based Modulmatik evolved beyond modular manufacturing.
Long before semantic modelling and AI integration became common industry talking points, Modulmatik was already positioning modular construction as an information and systems problem rather than simply a manufacturing exercise. (main image: Modulmatik developed the Salzburg residential project using a hybrid timber system combining volumetric modules and prefabricated panels, achieving an estimated 83% level of prefabrication.)
Three years later, the Vienna-based business has evolved substantially.
Co-founded by Ukrainian engineer Michael Doroshenko, Modulmatik was built upon the extensive experience of Dervus.ua, a Ukrainian modular timber manufacturer that supplied projects to Norway, Austria, and Switzerland. However, the outbreak of war forced a rapid reassessment of both the company’s operations and its long-term direction.
“We relocated our factory to western Ukraine,” said Doroshenko. “That became the first major challenge for us. Within several months we launched a new factory in a new location, including a new hall and warehouse.”
The business continued supporting European projects by supplying modular homes to Switzerland and Austria, while transferring its modular manufacturing capacity to the Czech Republic.
A turning point came during involvement in a large Salzburg redevelopment proposal spanning roughly 8,000 square metres across seven storeys.
Although the project ultimately did not proceed, Doroshenko said the experience fundamentally changed how the company viewed modular construction.
“We realised our greatest value was not the physical factory itself,” he said. “Our greatest value was organisation and systems thinking.”
Why modular construction became an engineering coordination problem
That shift pushed Modulmatik away from operating purely as a manufacturer and toward functioning as an integrated modular engineering and systems company supporting multiple manufacturers across regions.
Today, the company works across Germany, the Baltic region, Saudi Arabia and other international markets, providing modularisation strategy, engineering coordination, production logic and digital workflows for manufacturers and developers.
Doroshenko argues many modular businesses still misunderstand the distinction between standard construction and industrialised construction.
“Many companies still see modular as simply another construction method,” he said. “But in reality it requires an entirely different way of thinking.”
One of the company’s core positions is that modular buildings should not be treated as fixed volumetric boxes, but as coordinated systems of interoperable components.
“We think about modular construction more as a system of components,” he said. “Like LEGO components rather than fixed boxes.”
That approach allows greater flexibility across varying projects, transport constraints and regional requirements while still maintaining repeatable production logic.
It also reflects the company’s broader shift toward distributed manufacturing models.
Rather than tying projects to a single factory, Modulmatik increasingly works across multiple aligned manufacturers depending on geography, local supply chains, labour conditions and regulatory requirements.
“No single factory can provide every engineering capability required,” Doroshenko said.
Modulmatik’s digital workflows connect design, engineering and manufacturing within a coordinated modular system.
Local regulation and cultural expectations still shape modular adoption
One of the more revealing aspects of Modulmatik’s international work is how heavily regional expectations continue influencing modular delivery models.
In Germany and Austria, the company deals with strict acoustic, structural and fire-protection regulations alongside transportation and lifting-engineering requirements.
In the Middle East, the challenge can become cultural rather than technical.
“For example, in Dubai we worked with a very large company using concrete modular systems because the local market strongly associates concrete with quality,” Doroshenko said.
“If clients knock on a wall and hear steel framing, they may perceive that negatively.”
That regional variability has reinforced Modulmatik’s view that industrialised construction cannot rely on rigid standardisation alone.
Instead, Doroshenko believes scalable modular systems must combine:
Semantic systems and distributed production reshape modular thinking
Alongside its engineering services, Modulmatik has increasingly focused on semantic data structures and digital coordination systems. In simple terms, the company is attempting to structure modular building information not simply as drawings or geometry, but as connected relationships between materials, manufacturing processes, logistics, regulations and assembly systems so downstream impacts can be understood automatically when project conditions change.
The company believes much of the construction industry still loses critical engineering intelligence inside static drawings and disconnected workflows.
“We preserve the solution, but not the reasoning,” Doroshenko said.
“That is a major issue in modular construction because everything is interconnected.”
Rather than viewing BIM purely as geometry, Modulmatik’s approach attempts to structure relationships between:
The intention is to allow systems to better understand downstream implications when project conditions change.
Doroshenko said this level of coordination is becoming increasingly important as modular projects grow more complex and distributed across multiple manufacturing partners.
“In modular construction, time is money,” he said. “You must rapidly coordinate architecture, production drawings and engineering systems.”
The company also believes modular delivery increasingly resembles advanced manufacturing sectors more than traditional onsite construction.
“It is much closer to automotive manufacturing than traditional construction,” Doroshenko said.
Doroshenko confirmed the company has also begun receiving interest from Australia as local discussion around industrialised construction continues to evolve.
For Modulmatik, the long-term direction of modular construction appears increasingly tied not simply to factory production, but to how engineering knowledge, manufacturing logic and coordinated data systems are structured across entire project ecosystems.
This is the first article in a two-part Built Offsite series examining Modulmatik’s evolving approach to industrialised construction, semantic modelling and distributed manufacturing.
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