Construction & Infrastructire
Prefab:
Sustainable innovation Prefabricated building and off-site construction account for a small but growing slice of the construction and infrastructure industry in this country. Could this fast-developing sector represent a new area of opportunity and innovation for Australian manufacturers? By Carole Goldsmith.
The Australian construction industry contributes $150bn (10%) to this country’s GDP. Of this, the prefabricated housing sector provides just $4.6bn, or 3%, of the residential housing market, according to the Manufacturing Excellence Taskforce of Australia (META)’s Prefab Housing Hub. With an estimated total of 155,000 houses built in Australia each year, prefabricated houses – including kit and transportable – account for just 4,650 of these. Shortened from “prefabrication”, prefab refers to any part of a building manufactured at a place other than its final location. PrefabAUS is the peak body for Australia’s off-site construction industry, with a diverse membership of almost 200 companies. PrefabAUS CEO Warren McGregor explains that the group’s members include manufacturers of prefabricated buildings, architects, building designers, other construction and supply chain professionals, affiliated industry associations and research groups. “Around 50 % of our membership is in Victoria and with the downturn of the auto industry, some automotive engineers are finding opportunities in the prefab industry,” says McGregor. “One example of this is where a GM Holden auto-engineer now works in prefab manufacturing after a period at another of our member companies, the Hickory Group.” The mining downturn has had a significant effect on some sections of the prefab industry, advises McGregor: “Accommodation camps known as dongas or portable modular buildings have long been used in the mining industry. Some of our members that supplied the mining industry are now turning their skills into other types of prefab manufacturing.”
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AMT November 2015
McGregor has a diverse background, mainly in management consulting across Australia and South-East Asia and with a property focus for the past ten years. Most recently he has been consulting with Thinc Projects, and last year wrote an assessment of advances made in the prefab space entitled ‘The Changing Face and Place of Construction’. In the report McGregor explains that prefabricated projects have been undertaken in Australia for a diverse range of projects, including: houses, low-rise apartment buildings, hotels, student accommodation, medical clinics, community halls and school buildings (not the portable classrooms of old), a variety of display suites for residential development, and even a RSPCA animal shelter. He cites examples such as: a McDonald’s restaurant manufactured by Prebuilt, based in Kilsyth, Victoria; and the new Mitcham Railway station, east of Melbourne, made by Modscape. Both companies are PrefabAUS members. McGregor agrees that prefab or modular buildings need more exposure in Australia and the industry would like to see a prefab showcase centre. “Preconstruction has made the industry global and you can buy an entire prefab hotel and ship it overseas,” he says. “Toyota is also a large producer of prefab houses. In Australia we are characterised by smaller innovative prefab firms, but the competition we are confronting here are often the big conglomerates overseas. The Victorian Government wants this state to be the prefab centre of excellence and this is part of its push for job creation. We can create a new type of factory job for people, including those currently working in the auto industry.”