Why the U.S. Keeps Making These Blocky Buildings

In Philadelphia, a condo building popped up in 22 months, or half the time it would take typically. That’s thanks to modular construction, where individual units are built in a factory and then shipped and assembled on site. This technique could help reduce costs, time and labor, pivotal in a time when the construction industry is struggling from a worker shortage.
I visited one such factory to see the logistics and construction of these modules - and question how this technique can be used for the skyscrapers of the future.
0:00 Modular construction
0:48 How the factory works
1:53 Modular vs. traditional construction
3:57 The downfalls
4:50 What’s next for the industry?
I’m Jamie Leventhal, a WSJ video journalist who examines how we build, move and redesign our world to make it more efficient. Join me as I envision what our societies could look like, breaking down everything from megaproject constructions to complex shipping routes with experts in the field.
#Skyscrapers #Construction #JamieLeventhal

[@alberthartl8885]

I was a general contractor for 33 years. Modular construction has been the 'next big thing' for all of that time. A dozen different reasons will keep this a niche market. They range from the mentioned logistics to fire codes.

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

Modular is comiblok

[@Demopans5990]

@carkawalakhatulistiwa Except with prefab wood framing instead of concrete panels

[@someasiandude4797]

Capiblock 💀

[@CaitlinOBigelow1]

Volumetric building companies has three factories, one in California, one in Pennsylvania, and an overseas factory in Poland. They're shipping modules all over the world.

[@patymac1336]

Great stuff! One other challenge that modular construction faces (which WSJ alluded to when mentioning height restrictions) is the legal side of things. Municipalities vary greatly in their zoning laws which can hamstring the universality aspect modular building aims to have. Hopefully more universal standards can be adopted between cities to encourage this type of construction

[@MrPeterPan]

Until it starts looking like Eastern Europe

[@TheRandCrews]

@@MrPeterPanalready happened the same time eastern europe built theirs

[@bruhice6058]

Absolutely not, cities should be unique

[@k34561]

There are other techniques used to save money and time like READY-FRAME where all framing lumber is pre-cut and marked at the factory. No measuring or cutting at the site. Any traditional builder can take advantage of it on any sight. It saves about 20% in time.

[@NirvanaFan5000]

These may not be the prettiest units, but considering the housing crisis, I'd love to see inexpensive and fast construction like this.

[@colinmusic3878]

this is great , factory buildings are the future . simplicity is key

[@ryguy5436]

The architecture is terrible

[@Luther_Luffeigh]

Welcome to KZbin, quality reporting 🙌🏽

[@yslee1401]

The Japanese have done prefabricated modular construction since the 1970s

[@jacobcorbin1]

The background music at 4:05 is the same music used by the BBC's Global News Podcast I don't know if it's sad that I recognized that but 🤷‍♂

[@bobthemagicmoose]

Great job!

[@PaulHo]

Modular doesn't have to be cookie cutter, recreating tract homes just more economically isn't the answer. I don't hate the execution, but these are dorms.

[@seancutt793]

Building housing more economically is definitely part of the answer. I'd rather we make quality, well-maintained social housing though. In Long Beach, we recently built a good number of apartment buildings and rent is actually going down!! More apartments are still on the way I love it. If they could be built cheaper, maybe even the new units could be cheap.

[@PaulHo]

@@seancutt793 shout out Long Beach, Orange County can't get it right. Huge reason why that 405 toll project is specifically only to get from South County to Long Beach.

[@seancutt793]

@@PaulHo Long Beach is so underrated

[@PaulHo]

@@seancutt793 basically everyone I know lives across the border in Long Beach.

[@MrPeterPan]

We have a ton of these in Russia. Ours are made out of concrete at least hha

[@bigjimmitchell]

There's a new company located near me that are splitting the diffrence between traditional and modular prebuilding components that are assembled on site to increase logistical challenges (shipping) and mitigates some of the need for larger cranes.

[@Kevin-fq3zh]

subscribed!!! 👌🏻

[@tonyl7286]

Wish Canadian cities will build more modular buildings to deal with the appalling housing costs.

[@RideTheSkinner]

Alberta needs it, now we have $175 Million it still won't be done the modular way, counsels friends needs the jobs for spotty work.

[@mistermood4164]

the problem isn't economic its political

[@Bjonnet55]

Canada need to get rid of Justin Trudeau leafy wing policies

[@Janoip]

Ar your and Murican Heating cost so low that you guys can build such Houses with limited Isolation + rarely seen in us Triple glazing (at least from what i have seen on friends' houses) Not to sound negative and coming from a highly regulated German Market that dreams in part of the Netherlands restriction for Building, but the Houses in the Vid couldn't be built here by far Energy efficiency like Treehouse with some foam spray insulation

[@lailoveredang]

Same building concept asSingapore BTO apartment. The only problem is water seepage 😅

[@ianhomerpura8937]

Is this happening in HDB flats or in private condominiums?

[@user-gg8we2ot4b]

We are cutting a lot of trees for constructing houses and buildings. Are we planting enough plants to compensate for the lost trees?

[@arfink]

I think this is a solved problem in the US at least. Forestry here is one of the most sustainable industries, because no timberland owner wants to strip the trees and then stop making money, so there's an extremely strong economic incentive to have a rotation of planting and harvesting. However, I don't know if this is true everywhere.

[@Sharukurusu]

Forestry has the potential to be carbon negative because the harvested woods stores carbon while new trees draw it down from the atmosphere. It isn’t on the scale needed to make a giant difference but it’s certainly a cool bonus.

[@AaronSmith-kr5yf]

Looks like a good way to build those cookie cutter 5 over 1 apartment buildings that have popped up all over Nashville in the past 15 years or so. But I see huge expenses in having the huge crane and the transportation costs cause it looks like you need an oversized load permit for each block. If you have your logistics set up right, precut the lumber at the lumber yard you can slap up a 5 over 1 pretty dang quick. And you can get by with a much smaller crane if all you are lifting is bundles of lumber/drywall/hvac units.

[@totoroben]

Draw inspiration from the Netherlands who have been building low rise, affordable row house/ apartment style housing for centuries. The USA used to build this way too, but the facades and the sloped roofs make them appear more appropriately as dwelling units, and not as the projects for low income people. We also need to greatly expand public housing programs and housing cooperatives to keep the private market prices under control. I'm not against modular construction, but you must make it look nice and somewhere people will be proud to live in. It is underestimated the importance and responsibility/ duty developers have in shaping the environments we must ultimately live in. Get it wrong and you not only lose business, you destroy the urban fabric that gives those living there a sense of place and community. I'm not joking.

[@seanthe100]

Yet the Netherlands has a worse housing crisis than the US and this is with stagnant population growth.

[@totoroben]

@@seanthe100 true, but that is because they gotta reclaim their land from the ocean, while the USA has a lot of land to work with. I was simply advocating that our built environment should be made in a way that honors our humanity and give people a space they will be proud to live at. I don't think cities are places many Americans understand how to do well anymore.

[@unicode-00A2]

Not a new idea, but not one I'm opposed to. Former USSR and eastern bloc countries are known for their panel housing, AKA "commie blocks". It was a cheap and efficient way to make sure every citizen had a house.

[@videoslogmos]

Soviet blocks were made if concrete, but not mud and sticks.

[@KILLKING110]

And the concrete construction made sure everyone equally suffered during summer and winter

[@videoslogmos]

@@KILLKING110 why? 🤔

[@TheKeksadler]

@@videoslogmos concrete isn't a good thermal insulator.

[@Erin-Thor]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I understood you can’t build wood structures higher than 3 stories? Higher requires steel frames.

[@lukethompson5558]

5 stories, not 3

[@Erin-Thor]

@@lukethompson5558 - Does it vary? I’m not doubting you, but here in Texas I think it’s different. 🤓

[@lukethompson5558]

@@Erin-Thor It’s a standard building code which all states have adopted. Wikipedia “5 over 1”

[@pepperonish]

You can build six floors of wood in Western Washington More for mass timber

[@Nardiumms]

So can you buy these “modules” and have them installed on a foundation as a single family home? Just add a porch, gabled roof, garage

[@JuliasCesar]

CANADA NEEDS THIS!! Just our government won’t do modular on this level. We will be getting modular or standardized single family homes. We need these too honestly.

[@maxrush206]

the government literally never would. you realize the housing crisis is completely manufactured right. after oil prices tanked in 2014 the canadian government turned the country into a big property bubble

[@AGenericAccount]

i believe soviet apartments were also prefab modular

[@PrograError]

I don't think it's in the same way as it is these days, it's more akin to the old magazine houses where you shop for the template of houses, modern prefab is a more recent thing... like post 9/11 recent. plus it's just cheaper to just get the manpower to build it straight up the old way since the state (USSR) controls the purse.

[@fldon2306]

Cruise ships have been building Staterooms in this fashion for years; complete and just slide into place…Big buildings made out of matchsticks? Hope there’s a sprinkler system installed…

[@ParutoX]

Ah! The famous Jamie

[@JorgeOrpinel]

Extra, Extra! WSJ discovers prefabricated buildings!

[@yojimbo3681]

The lumber today isn't heartwood, not like decades ago.

[@jeffjwatts]

I worked with my dad in the 1980's in construction. There was little old wood even then.

[@user-xg2pd3ek9u]

Does it weigh more than a conventionally constructed building?

[@pepperonish]

It definitely does... I did pre construction work for a hotel That was originally going to be modular, but the added weight pushed it to be traditionally site built. It was a very unique situation though. The underlying soil was quite poor.

[@CP-zj1hx]

I live in Los Angeles, where doing signup to work?

[@pepperonish]

You need to move somewhere where factory workers can get paid 15 bucks an hour to build these.

[@Blashmack]

Katerra crashed and burned pretty hard. They were fast and loose with acquisitions, tried to do everything themselves. Some critique that the founders were tech-types who did not want to accept the realities of doing business in the construction sector.

[@tersolarcells9656]

CitizenM has been importing these modules from China to build their hotels, with 30% customs duty and it's still 30% cheaper than building them in the US. In Australia and New Zealand, most of them had already been fabricated in China, and so is Singapore. I've been to some of the factories in China owned by CIMC and CSCEC, It is amazing that they are now building these modules just like building a car, with a production line with robot arms to weld the structure. Honestly, if US government really wants to solve its housing crisis, China could probably export 50000 apartments in 1 year's time, but at the cost all the US construction workers.

[@lukethompson5558]

They should wave the customs duty on housing. Anything to bring housing costs & inflation down

[@erikawwad7653]

fun thing: 2/3 of inflation is due to the housing crisis@@lukethompson5558

[@pepperonish]

They used to be made in Poland 🇵🇱

[@theonlycaulfield]

I see these things getting put up all over. They still need US construction workers to assemble them. My brother and I call them plastic box apartments.

[@lukethompson5558]

@@theonlycaulfield There are not enough US construction workers to meet demand

[@user-dr2pg8fk2i]

Have to love how they are using the absolute lowest acceptable quality of lumber allowed.

[@mihaikalman2605]

A wooden apartment block? What can go wrong?

[@TohaBgood2]

@@mihaikalman2605 Ummm... not much. Most construction in the US is wood and has been since forever.

[@capnsteele3365]

gfotta keep costs down

[@reel1tv587]

Fascinating.

[@TheDukeGreat]

I see this and think Amazon and Walmart would be the first ones to scale this up in case it works. There is so many bottlenecks that they can find and optimize that no one can.

[@elijaha773]

The double wall between units seems inefficient, but I wonder if it helps with soundproofing.

[@nntflow7058]

It only helps soundproofing if both walls doesn't touch each others.

[@videoslogmos]

Nope

[@FullLengthInterstates]

I really hope there is more emphasis on sound proofing in new construction! A lot of people want privacy but don't necessarily need a full suburban yard, if a bit of insulation can do the trick.

[@Bionik1980]

Rated walls 1hr? Or structural. But yes, it seems redundant

[@treed6953]

So beautiful, too 😅

[@mrdkr]

I was living in a typical 5-over-1 in Atlanta for 1.5 years. These buildings are poorly constructed and, in my opinion, unsafe. We had gas leaks, fire, and fire alarm used to go off every week. Also, the noise level is just insane. I have no idea what is a purpose of building apartment buildings with wood. Would it be better and more efficient to just build buildings with concrete that last decades and not years? Regarding 5-over-1s just Google what happens when they catch fire or there is a gas explosion. If you don’t know what 5-over-1 building is, allow me to explain: “The name derives from the maximum permissible five floors of combustible construction (Type III or Type V) over a fire-resistive Type I podium” according to Wikipedia. In this case Type I is a concrete base. Average price per month? Something like $2000 depending on a market.

[@danfahmi]

Modular construction is expensive. Remember 2 things: 1. The built environment is the cheapest thing money can buy per cubic inch (yes most of that is air) 2. Transportation costs are the largest expense in construction Construction is surprisingly pretty efficient, but designs have gotten complex

[@alpeshravariya687]

You are creating very good content?

[@tommykelly6840]

Contentttttttt!!!!!

[@JoeWayne84]

So a stack of house trailers haha

[@lokesh303101]

Better!

[@tycranford5]

What if you could make the factory mobile

[@poppinc8145]

The audio volume on this video is too low!!

[@DigitalBenny]

I saw one short clip of someone cutting some white foamy stuff but otherwise I see ZERO insulation in these modules? 🤔

[@LetsJamFunk]

Good in theory, but it's swapping a short-term problem for a long-term one. Materials seem flimsy, not necessarily for fire and earthquakes, but also for mould, termites, and insulation. The cost and environmental savings from construction may all be lost on heating and cooling costs while making the residents sick.

[@natedoggin1077]

hope they keep the shops full of union carpenters

[@johnwoods9380]

Henry Ford would have been so proud

[@privacyhelp]

China and Japan have been doing this for a long time

[@reel1tv587]

America. This country cease to amaze me.

[@amazingamx1255]

Im willing to go into construction if the pay is high enough. But it simply isnt

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

Soviet microdistrict vs American Suburban

[@bokunogentoo4420]

Americans discover Khruschevkas

[@Bionik1980]

They'll never understand one because they have trailers

[@jirachi-wishmaker9242]

Wooden house, no wonder houses collapse even with a small cyclone.

[@ramochai]

Wood frame buildings suck so badly when it comes to heat and noise insulation. They also wobble like old furniture, not to mention its potential to turn into ashes in the event of fire. So no thanks, I'm happy with steel reinforced concrete and brick.

[@jpdurr]

you didn't tell us where the factory is located. Nice.

[@theonlycaulfield]

They did. It's called LVL North at 510 N Broad in Philadelphia. These cookie-cutter modular buildings are popping up in every city metro area in the country though.

[@serafinacosta7118]

Say goodbye to quality architectureand long lasting structures. Good thing I left America.

[@FreeManFreeThought]

Yeah, except that most other places have been doing this sort of thing for 70 years! North America used to do prefab a lot more often too, most of the old "character homes" that people love in older neighbourhoods were literally flatpacked kits that could fit into a rail car or two and sold from catalogues by the likes of sears.

[@skidmarks4360]

Kind of similar to communist panel construction, it seems like the only way this could be profitable at scale, would be through automation.

[@letkwu]

I like this, but why can't we have this everywhere like China and the Soviet Union did?

[@PrograError]

Zoning laws I believe... single story family home is the literal law. And you only see an apartment when TODs are allowed.

[@GoingtoHecq]

I think American apartment design sucks cuz they only ever have windows on one side. They are dark and claustrophobic, and often made mostly of plastic and it turns out our modern chemically based construction materials are very toxic, especially when you live with them.

[@skiingfast1]

This is not new. It is a well over 50 year old idea. Ever been to Vegas and wonder why almost every hotel room is the same size in all those resorts?

[@carpintero01]

worker shortage? try strong job market

[@jirachi-wishmaker9242]

Commie Blocks

[@bdeas]

People will blame capitalism but this style of architecture is all that's left over after all the rules are followed.

[@satoril928]

I hate how these Ikea apartments make everything look the samey same.

[@BrowncoatGofAZ]

Same is cheaper to build in bulk.

[@zachb1706]

Samey is fine. Traditional buildings in Europe all look identical sitting next to each other, but are some of the nicest buildings in the world.

[@RoniiNN]

Cute girl

[@WindowsXP_logon_sound_25yrsago]

Well it's not a style that I like but I guess some people like it. I'm sure there's a useful application for all kinds of building styles out there. Economical, quick-to-assemble modular construction certainly can have its uses, no doubt. I just don't like how bland, soulless and cookie cutter so much new construction is. I hope this aesthetic falls into the trash heap of history fast.

[@adityaln9361]

modular is old news, out the door before it even had a chance. 3d printing buildings is the future

[@nick......]

This is not something to be praised for. 😅

[@FirEMSChaplain]

This is not a new construction style. An entire hotel was built in San Antonio for the HemisFair 1968 using pre-built pods and craned into place over a couple weeks.

[@ghos7bear]

So exactly like commie-blocks but out of wood instead of concrete?

[@nishiljaiswal2216]

Where is the social housing?

[@BrowncoatGofAZ]

OC: if there’s good one thing you can say about the Commies: they knew how to house their workers.

[@zachb1706]

Commie homes but look decent and are actually liveable.

[@noahscoville9557]

It’s so you can’t buy a house and own in wake up

[@seancutt793]

omg calm down we've practically only been building single family housing for a century. 90% of city lands are zoned only for single family housing. People can own apartments we just call them condos for some reason. The simple fact is that we need more dense housing. Good walkable city neighborhoods are so rare in the US because of pearl-clutchers such as yourself. More housing supply means cheaper living. Our culture needs to stop pushing for artificial scarcity. I can also guarantee you that we're still building plenty of single family houses.