ON SITE
01 A view of the KEF Holdings
He sees a reflection of this trend in the Middle East, although he concedes that currently this has been limited to specific developments such as the façades or bathrooms. However, he is convinced that modular construction is bound to gain momentum in the 02 foreseeable future with initiatives such as the Dubai Industrial Strategy and the 3D Strategy, which he believes will change the face of the industry in the region. Faizal’s forays into modular construction have met with all-round success. KEF Infra, with its sprawling and growing prefab plant in Krishnagiri in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is currently working on a number of different projects across varying building types, including specialised infrastructure. These include, among many others, 03 a flagship mega hospital healthcare project, a 12,100sqm school set for completion in a record five-and-a-half months and a 148,700sqm commercial project to be completed in a record 13.5 months. DuBox Precast Industrial Products, a subsidiary of Amana Contracting & Steel Buildings, is another major player in this modular construction space. DuBox handles modular design, modular manufacturing and modular construction. As would be expected, Yasser Baaj, vice president for Business 04 Development, is a strong advocate of modular designs, which he asserts are easy to execute, can be used in all forms of construction, maintain high-quality standards and are produced speedily, saving valuable construction time. An industry professional, he draws the distinction between modular design and modular construction and outlines the benefits at the outset. “It is important to differentiate between modular design and modular construction. Whereas the first is just about the form of design outputs, modular construction is the methodology of construction that takes the majority of the work to the factory away from the uncontrolled or difficult to control conditions. This 85% off-site methodology comes
precast factory . 02 Vanessa Currie, strategic development director, Laing O’Rourke. 03 Yasser Baaj, vice president, DuBox. 04 Faizal E. Kottikollon, founder & chairman, KEF Holdings.
with 30% saving in manpower, 30-50% in time saving, more than 70% health and safety enhancement when compared with conventional precast construction.” “The modular design industry is still rudimentary in the GCC. However, the industry is evolving rapidly and labour and staff accommodation projects are increasingly being designed in modular shapes. However, other types of constructions, even the hotels, are not designed modular until now. It will take some time to bring about a change in the engineering and construction industry in favour of modular construction, but we are gradually moving into this arena,” continues Baaj, whose firm produces modules in its 62,000sqm factory in Dubai Industrial City. DuBox’s order book is full. The company has just delivered three staff accommodation projects in Saudi Arabia, two staff accommodation projects in the UAE’s Western Region and Ruwais, a high-end villa project in Ruwais, a hospital extension in Abu Dhabi, two office buildings in Dubai and a villa complex project, in addition to a modular school project in Dubai. “Through the last four years, we managed to field test the application of modular construction on housing, staff accommodation, hospitality and healthcare industries, and we tested the remoteness of the projects to confidently cover GCC countries with much success,” he adds. Modular versatility
According to Vanessa Currie, modular design can be used for all forms FEBRUARY 2017 35