Simplifying healthcare infra with prefab construction

Ajay Gupta (AIA), Executive Director, Kgd-Architecture elaborates on various approaches and systems to modular and prefab construction 

Healthcare projects require very complicated infrastructure. Mechanical and electrical services, plumbing, fire-fighting systems, medical gases, pneumatic tube system, waste management system etc. are required to keep a hospital operational.

In addition, the speed of executing a greenfield or a brown-field project is very critically tied to the RoI model of a healthcare operator. This is even more so in a brownfield hospital where the expansion is happening in a fully running hospital, and hence other parameters like infection control and nuisance to the existing facility play major roles.

Modular construction and prefabrication is the first step to resolving the above mentioned issue to a great extent. There are various approaches and systems to modular and prefab construction, which help us in varying ways.

Precast construction is an efficient way of building where the wall and slab panels are built off-site and assembled at the project site. These panels act as a complete solution for the building with weather barrier and thermal barrier and other built-in sustainable parameters. This construction technology is much faster than traditional construction methods and also has a high level of quality control as all quality checks are implemented in a controlled environment.

Steel construction is probably the best solution in today’s times for expansion of a current hospital as the additional dead load of the expansion is very less compared to traditional construction. This can help in having minimal impact while re-strengthening the existing foundations and build structure. In addition, the nuisance value of this type of construction is very marginal, and hence help run the existing healthcare facility with minimal disorder.

POD construction is basically a philosophy of modularisation of building elements, like the toilet. All its sanitary fitting and tilling are manufactured in a factory and then just placed in the correct location in the building via a crane and hooked up to the primary services from there. So it’s a plug-and-play kind of approach to a building element.

This approach has similar benefits like precast construction but takes it to the next level.

This approach in innovation and methodology is helping us resolve all these issues which a traditional way of building seriously lacks. Moving forward, it will be a more of a necessity to go down this path rather than a choice.