The Advantages Of Modular Buildings In UK Education

The great benefit of modular buildings is that they can be put up quickly, don’t require lots of foundation digging or heavy lifting equipment, and can be established for temporary purposes when necessary.

All these elements make them very useful when you need space in a hurry, without committing yourself to having a patch of land occupied for the long term that would require an equally disruptive demolition process to remove. Finding portable cabins for sale can be a faster and better solution all round.

Educational settings are a prime example of buildings where all these considerations are very relevant.

Firstly, the fact that such buildings can be established quickly is extremely important. If a school building or part of it is suddenly rendered unusable by fire, flood or other calamity, or needs work carrying out on it, modular buildings can come to the rescue, providing the teaching space you need.

Sometimes the only problem with the existing school buildings is a lack of space as the need for room increases rapidly due to a swift rise in the number of pupils, something that can happen in areas with fast population change.

As Specification Online recently reported, the fast construction of a modular building at Short Wood Primary School in Wellington near Telford helped resolve exactly this situation, ensuring the extra capacity needed was delivered in just eight weeks. It means the short-term solution of repurposing the school library can be discontinued, enabling that facility to return to its important original use.

An advantage of the structure chosen was that it fell within permitted development rights, meaning the school did not need to undertake a lengthy planning application. Also, the use of heavy machinery was brief and thus could be restricted to the school holidays.

That issue is, of course, an important one when adding any building at a school. Safety around building sites is an important issue for everyone, but while those working on a site are well-drilled in the precautions they should take and have lots of personal protective equipment, there is always a risk when curious children are about.

Indeed, Health and Safety Executive guidance on building site safety includes the consideration of whether it is likely to attract children. It notes that two or three children die per year in the UK as a result of accidents that happen when they make an unauthorised entry to a building site.

The good news with a modular construction is that this reduces the site risk greatly. With less heavy plant equipment, the lack of deep foundations that could prompt drowning hazards after rain, the absence of heavy materials like brick and stone and the simple fact that the works will be over far sooner all reduce the risk factors should a child get closer than permitted.

Finally, because modular buildings can be disassembled faster and more easily, that means that schools can make long-term plans in the knowledge that they can provide enough temporary teaching space while drawing up a project to construct a more permanent and substantial structure later on, perhaps one of multiple storeys.

The speed and simplicity of modular assembly may just provide the solution your school is looking for.

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