Applications of industrial prefabrication?
Where has prefabrication technology already been successful today?
Neubauer
The first macro elements were used as far back as ancient Egypt! 4500 years ago, smart, organized brains managed to transport prefabricated parts down the river Nile without digitization to erect such great structures as the Sphinx or the pyramids. That is quite impressive. We had to re-learn that. Furniture construction for the mass market is a more modern inspiration here. It uses prefabricated production for affordable furniture. Prefabrication is not limited to any one specific material. We can choose the material and construction methods that are most sustainable. We will have ß time building tall buildings out of very thin concrete structures. That just will not work. We are going to need steel structures there, and therefore we prefabricate steel structures. That should not be a problem. We already manufacture 99% of our bathrooms from a steel frame with plating. We need to choose the materials best suited for the projects. As precast concrete is still the easiest option to manufacture, it has become established in an analogous way to chipboard in furniture prefabrication for the mass market. You can prefabricate almost anything though!
Maier
The only thing I must add there is that the higher the degree of standardization, the clearer I am on what the building is going to look like, and the higher the possible degree of prefabrication. Even for bathrooms or other equipment, I can deliver everything to the construction site ready-made, as we are seeing in hotel construction today. That area already enjoys a remarkably high degree of prefabrication. I think this will also move into private housing and industrial construction.
Neubauer
We are also making progress in building modernization. Akkord Group has ordered prefabricated bathrooms from a large manufacturer in Germany to then install in old buildings. It is no longer necessary to build on-site to renovate an old hotel. All that is needed is an opening in the façade to insert the bathroom. It is, therefore, possible to fully refurbish an old building's interior, even when the conversion would not be allowed at all in an old city center! That is also part of prefabrication! Let me add something I dream of, about the possibilities of prefabrication. I am convinced that 3D printing will enable us to reproduce even old components or components in old regions with the same look. We are probably going to build a supporting structure from a standard precast part and then apply those shapes to it to ensure that the buildings will fit into the ensemble there. We are not quite there yet, but I passionately believe that this is a way to take this kind of prefabrication further, this is what I am working for.