Non-residential buildings
The typical fields
Section titled “The typical fields”Offices
Section titled “Offices”Flexible plans, changeable partitions, many service routes. A framed structure handles later alteration well here.
Education buildings
Section titled “Education buildings”Strict acoustic and fire requirements, many repeating rooms.
Healthcare buildings
Section titled “Healthcare buildings”High hygiene and services demands, often strict acoustic expectations.
Hotels and student accommodation
Section titled “Hotels and student accommodation”Many repeating, identical units: this is where series production and panelised or modular construction are strongest. Stick-built, panelised, modular.
Ancillary industrial buildings
Section titled “Ancillary industrial buildings”Welfare blocks, offices, service areas beside a shed.
Modular units
Section titled “Modular units”Transportable, deployable units where both the low self-weight and the manufacturing accuracy are advantages.
What differs from housing
Section titled “What differs from housing”Stricter fire requirements
Section titled “Stricter fire requirements”A higher risk class brings more requirements: structural fire resistance, fire compartmentation, material classes and sometimes installed systems. Risk classification.
Acoustics
Section titled “Acoustics”Not only sound reduction but room acoustics can be a consideration.
Density of services
Section titled “Density of services”Far more services, larger diameters, more penetrations. Designing the service cavity and the structural penetrations is critical here.
Operability
Section titled “Operability”Accessibility, later adaptability and documentation carry more weight.
Where the technology particularly suits
Section titled “Where the technology particularly suits”Repetition: if a hotel room or a classroom repeats many times, the design is produced once and manufacture multiplies it accurately. That is where prefabrication genuinely pays back.
For that, though, the design has to close early.
The point
Section titled “The point”In non-residential buildings the requirements are stricter but the repetition is greater. That combination is exactly where the technology is strongest.