“Intelligent” robots now produce custom-cut panels of mass timber walls, floors, and ceilings. The panels are then bound together in factories before being assembled onsite as part of multi-storey mass timber housing projects.
That is according to the Canadian-based Journal of Commerce, which reports that Intelligent City is using remote-controlled robots to produce “Quick Builds,” Canada’s latest policy to tackle its spiralling housing crisis.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, and machine learning are the next frontiers for construction. Last year, Wood Central reported that John McMullen from the US Modular Building Institute said AI is changing the construction industry “forever,” adding that “efficiencies can reduce building times and material waste.”
And there is no clearer indication of the change sweeping construction than at Intelligent City’s manufacturing plant, located halfway between downtown Vancouver and the US border.
“The new factory was set up at the end of 2021 and started producing commercial mass timber panels in January 2024,” according to Oliver Lang, Intelligent City’s CEO and co-founder, who added that five giant industrial robots are arranged onsite in manufacturing assembly zones that together comprise a safe assembly line.
“Electrical channels and ventilation ducts then cut into the panels before they leave the factory,” Mr Lang said, adding that the facility is supplying the facade system for a new nine-story mass timber housing project on behalf of the BC Indigenous Housing Society’s affordable housing program.
The design uses cross-laminated timber floors and envelope panels – with the panels installed into a basket-weave pattern around the building’s exterior.
According to Mr Lang, Intelligent City has two fundamental goals: “the availability of supply” and “reduced carbon emissions.”
Intelligent City dates back to 1999, when it was established as an architectural practice. In 2010, it spun out a sister company to capitalise on a gap in the market to deliver turnkey projects.
“We provide design-build housing solutions,” according to Mr Lang, who said, “Our preferred customer wants a fully integrated solution from us.”
Until now, Intelligent City’s “sweet spot” has been six to 18-storey buildings, primarily due to British Columbia’s building code, which, until this month, had only allowed a 12-storey mass timber build.
However, with changes under review to the BC Building Code, which could see permissible mass timber buildings rise to 18 storeys, that could soon change.
“Smart densification is the direction many cities are going in,” Mr Lang said, adding that “they’re sometimes called 15-minute cities.”
The 15-minute City is an urban planning concept in which most daily necessities – work, shopping, education, health care and leisure – can occur within a 15-minute radius via foot, bike or public transport. The goal is to reduce car dependency, promote healthy and sustainable living and improve city dwellers’ well-being and quality of life.
For many, offsite manufacturing and onsite assembly are being touted as the best ways to tackle materials scarcity, supply chain disruptions, and labour shortages.
When done right, design for manufacturing and assembly (or DFMA) can mitigate risk, increase efficiency and drive faster, greener and more economical construction.
“Europe’s ahead of North America in producing components and shipping them to the site for assembly instead of doing everything on site,” according to Craig Mitchell, a Vancouver-based modular and offsite construction consultant. Mr Mitchell said the practice started in Germany, Austria, and Sweden before spreading to Western Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific.
“The Europeans started 20 years ago, but Canada is quickly catching up.”
Still, “the US is ahead of Canada in modular and mass timber construction because it has a larger and more geographically concentrated market than we have,” he said.
Last week, Wood Central reported that offsite manufacturing and prefab construction were the Games Organisers ‘secret weapon ahead of the Paris Olympics later this year. PrefabAus, the peak industry body for modular construction in Australia, published a roadmap pushing for prefabrication to “penetrate” 80% of all construction materials.
For Mr Mitchell, the benefits of DFMA lie in speed and efficiency, which will drive significantly greater take-up over the following decades. Nonetheless, it does have its challenges.
“To do offsite construction well, a company needs to be well capitalised because advanced processing digital tools and robotics are expensive,” Mr Mitchell said, adding that offsite production needs to operate “like an auto assembly line.”
“If there are any gaps in production, you’re losing money…traditional construction, where you’re doing everything on site, doesn’t have that problem.”
Apart from the cost, adding a digital component to the traditionally analog design processes, manufacturing and assembly can take time to coordinate and require experience and expertise.
And whilst prefabrication is only a small part of the total construction in Canada and worldwide, it’s snowballing.
“And right now, the way to learn it is by doing,” he said.
