The future is here – however, construction is still lagging behind in some cases. At the Heuer Dialog annual congress the topic of the day was “Modular construction of the future”. Frank Talmon l’Armée, CEO of SEMODU, talked about what changes in the real estate industry have to be made and what the future with smart homes will look like.

Disinfectants, masks, rules and both people and tables at a distance. The corona pandemic has also influenced Heuer Dialog. Nobody was deterred. However, the seats were full and speakers who could not come in person connected online.

 

“Beauty on the inside is the most important,” parents often tell their children, and yet some still talk about “Platte 2.0” when it comes to modular construction. In addition to affordable living space and functionality, people also want their apartment or office building to be aesthetically pleasing in order to feel comfortable in it. The importance of this in terms of costs and sustainability should not be underestimated. Only if a building is used for a long time it will be profitable and the environment will not suffer too much. However, if a building quickly becomes outdated and unappealing, it is not used and has to be demolished early. Functionality, sustainability and aesthetics must therefore go hand in hand. “Nobody can tell when they see our designs from the outside that they are modular buildings. Thanks to the diverse combination of units and the different facades, a wide variety of houses can be built,” says Frank Talmon l’Armée, Founder and Board member of SEMODU AG.

In order to become more sustainable, the environmental impact of the construction industry must also be addressed, both in production and during use. The construction industry produces more than 50% of the annual waste, uses 70% non-renewable raw materials and is one of the biggest emitters of CO2 worldwide. These problems can and must be tackled in various places.

The first step is to industrialize the construction industry. As the last sector of the economy, there is still no serial production here, instead every house is practically a prototype, which leads to correspondingly high structural damage and waste. Modular construction with its prefabricated units is particularly suitable for serial production.

However, not only for serial production, but also the step towards circular economy is also easier in modular construction, as not only individual elements, but also entire modules can be reused. Since the most important components, what could be called the DNA of modular construction, are easy to disassemble, buildings can be expanded, reduced or set up in completely different locations. This way of construction also makes recycling easier. “It is important for us to build with sustainable raw materials, as is the case with our wood and hybrid modules. We do not only use wood, but we are also committed to reforestation,” emphasizes Talmon l’Armée.

The buildings of the future are not only more sustainable, but they are also “more intelligent”. A wide variety of providers are already working on innovations for so-called smart homes. In addition to heating, building security, light, audio and many other devices, this also includes fully digitized room walls that can be operated by touch, gestures, voice control and an App. These digital walls are a platform and at the same time a new interactive device that combines all functions that were previously distributed over countless devices. Digital walls are transformed into wallpapers, present works of art from the most renowned museums in the world, they are social media walls, replace the television and the photo album of the family. In addition, horizontal surfaces can be heated, magnetically or by induction and used as a hotplate. Of course, all tools and functions can be networked here and controlled from anywhere via an App. “I am firmly convinced that everything that can be dematerialized will be dematerialized in the future,” continues Talmon l’Armée, making a clear statement. The house of the modular future can provide many of these functions right from the factory. The use is when the resident needs it – as a contemporary pay-per-use model.

 

It is precisely this user behavior that will not only affect the future of living, but also all other areas of our life. As it not only saves time, energy and money, it is one thing above all else: flexibility. Who would install a warning system that costs several thousand Euro if you can only activate it for the five weeks of holiday a year and then deactivate it again?

Everyday life ,as we know it now, will change radically in just a few years.

Alale-Sarshar-Fard, ECHOLOT Editor

Editor

Alale Sarshar Fard
echolot public relations
+49 711 9901486
[email protected]

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