We work with several partners more often, Jan Snel – Daiwa House being a good example. Since they started a separate business as a unit builder, our cooperation has only intensified. In which their own products and services went through a major improvement. Nowadays, we no longer talk about units, but about modular construction, because modular construction is much more well thought-out and innovative than the units we know from the past. By designing a building in fixed module sizes, offices, flats, or houses can be built through unit construction or element construction. We would be happy to tell you more about it.
From Pelecon, Bastiaan Hoefnagel works a lot together with Jan Snel – Daiwa House. We are happy to ask him about the cooperation. Bastiaan explains that Jan Snel, Daiwa and Medexs are three separate companies under the DaiwaModularHousing Group (DHME), all three working within a specific market. Their products are particularly interesting for small-scale flat construction, offices, operating rooms (Medexs) and serial housing construction. Jan Snel (JS) provides the market with temporary buildings, earthquake-resistant housing in Groningen, temporary classrooms, or migrant centres. DHME focuses more on large-scale projects such as student housing. DHME is also one of the companies chosen by the government to build housing quickly. This was also in the news last month,” Bastiaan said.
A history together
Bastiaan continues: “We have been working together for at least 20 years, with JS/DHME’s various modular construction systems serving the market ever more professionally. Modular construction is a specialisation that has developed further in recent years. Many disciplines come together, with production, (manufacturability), seriality and remountability always being the most important spearheads. We have grown along with JS/DHME to become one of the specialists among modular construction”.
Pelecon’s added value for Jan Snel – DH
Speed of our service and service are very important to JS/DHME. Bastiaan explains that in the design process, JS/DHME has often already made many choices. “Our job is to calculate the building as much as possible within the DHME standard, should it not be constructively possible the impact should be as minimal as possible. Choices and principles made are determined based on previous projects carried out. In which the foundation is almost always the major variable. JS/DHME’s modular building systems have a low deadweight compared to traditional construction. Due to the lightweight structural construction and often non-permanent housing, a foundation on ‘steel’ is often desirable. Foundations can also be installed in some situations in the form of concrete slabs on a sand bed. In this way, the entire building can be removed completely at the end of its use and placed elsewhere. Applying a remountable foundation on ‘steel’ is not possible in all the Netherlands. Therefore, a pile foundation is insurmountable in some cases.”
Pelecon wants to make a difference
“The building systems developed by Jan Snel may or may not have been developed together with our engineering firm. Pelecon’s input always concerns structural safety, but manufacturability and remountability are also a starting point. JS/DHME’s various modular construction systems have advantages and disadvantages, where building designs in modules and remountability are always the main starting points. Currently, an HBO student is working on graduation research on high-rise buildings with JS/DHME’s building systems. DHME’s strength is that they can build modularly, which meets the strictest standards and are always reusable after use. Sustainability at its best!”
The future
Bastiaan is proud that the ambitions of both Pelecon and Jan Snel – Daiwa House are boundless! “New factories have recently been built in Montfoort and Bunnik for which we also provided the structural consultancy. DHME wants to become the largest modular builder in Europe, Pelecon is happy to contribute its stone to this as a structural consultant!”
