When we think of emerging technologies, most of us put our spectacles on (if we have them): everything innovative and epoch-making seems to be getting smaller and smaller. In the 1970s, the “world’s first truly portable computer”, the IBM 5100 (since you ask), weighed in at a whopping 55 pounds and came equipped with a separate plug-in processor: now you can comfortably slip a laptop into your suitcase and take it on the train. Geostationary satellites used to be launched one at a time on top of multiple-stage rocket systems, each as big as a family saloon: now they’re small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, weighing less than 1kg. And, of course, we’ve all become used to fitting telephone receivers into the shell of our ear when they (the receivers, not the ears) used to be as big and cumbersome as a set of Bakelite weights.

But let’s not forget smaller doesn’t always mean better, and some of the technologies currently changing our lives for the better are, quite literally, as big as a house.

Stepping away from the mud…

3D Volumetric Construction is currently at the cutting edge of modern building technologies: increasing use of AI, Blockchain and IT systems to create components in conditions more akin to a laboratory than a building site before being shipped off for final assembly where they’re needed most. This complex, interlocking set of technologies enables key materials to be brought into place on a “just in time” basis, resulting in high cost and time savings that are enough to make the average dinosaur contractor stomp his (or her) foot in frustration (assuming they can spare the time from wading through the mud of a conventional site, searching for where the last delivery was dumped). And, of course, there’s precious little mud to be found in a state-of-the-art Modular Construction facility, still less any chance of valuable materials being lost under tangled piles of pipes and rusting girders. 

That’s why 3D Volumetric Construction, particularly Modular Construction, can now deliver our built environment up to 50% faster and 60% cheaper than its stuck-in-the-mud alternatives (www.mckinsey.com). 

Why does that matter?

So why does that matter, and what makes it so important?

Well, wise readers that you are, you certainly know already that we’re in the middle of a global housing crisis: governments across the globe can’t meet burgeoning levels of demand by staying stuck in the mud, and nothing conspires for success better than 50% faster delivery times: let alone 60% less cost to be absorbed into the Exchequer’s bottom line. So, homeless citizens can be housed faster and less expensively with 3D Volumetrics, and no government since the dawn of democracy ever lost an election by doing that.

Plus, Modular Construction is more sustainable over the long run, too: units can be readily disassembled when the building comes to the end of its natural life, which is more than you can say for all those broken pipes, bent and rusted steelwork, and shelves of broken brickwork clogged with mortar (all of them destined for the landfill sites that make dinosaur construction one of the world’s worst sources of environmental pollution).

Energy use is also better and more sustainable in a modern modular building. It’s not just domestic housing either: 3D Volumetric designs are currently being adopted in a broad spectrum of commercial and retail premises, including everything from a hospital to an aircraft hangar…15% of the world’s total construction output is now Modular based.

So isn’t it about time we struck out for success rather than staying stuck in the mud?

Executive Overview

Emerging technologies are delivered where they’re most needed and with the speed and scale to make a sustainable difference. That’s the secret behind the extraordinary success of Modulex, and I’m proud to be part of it.