Browsing by Author "Aaltonen, Juho Aleksi"

Growing concern on climate change has provided impetus for developing and implementing sustainable solutions in various industries. For instance, the theme of bioeconomy has increasingly gained interest in the 2000s. Other megatrends such as population growth and urbanization further highlight the importance of finding and implementing sustainable solutions to various industries, or as in this connection, the examination of the residential multi-story construction (MC) industry. More specifically, viewpoints regarding the industry’s productivity, environmental regulations and future trends regarding both MC and residential wooden multi-story construction (WMC) were emphasized. This study was conducted applying qualitative research methods. Semi-structured interviews were held in 2018 for 10 construction company executives, managers or people with an equivalent status mainly in areas related to procurement and production. The selected sampling strategy was purposeful sampling. The main criterion in the selection process was that the companies contacted did not have prior experience in WMC, as they were not seen being overly represented in previous literature especially in the context of WMC. Based on the results, the majority of experts perceived the productivity development in the construction industry similar as previous studies have shown. That is, productivity development has been slow compared to other industries. Some of the expressed solutions considered moving increasingly more toward prefabricated solutions and minimizing on-site construction, and the further development of technologies such as building information models (BIMs). However, the current zoning policies were seen to inhibit some of the potential, as they do not permit incorporating more repetitive production methods. The adoption rate of digital solutions were mentioned as an opportunity for productivity development, and the role of digitalization was seen to enhance productivity. Regarding the theme of environmental regulations, no additional or special metrics were brought up, as the current policies already demand extensive documentation. The emphasis in discussion was more inclined toward operational energy use instead of embodied energy. For example, investigating opportunities for implementing geothermal heat or solar panels were mentioned. Investors were seen to demand increasingly environmental certifications (e.g., BREEAM & LEED) in real-estate investments, however, consumer demand for this was not specifically identified. Regarding future trends in MC, prefabrication was mentioned the most often. In addition, digitalization and robotics were seen to have a larger role in future. The effects of urbanization to the Finnish housing market and to the consumers raised questions. As the results imply that the prefabrication rate will increase in the future, this in turn could possess a potential for WMC especially in off-site modular construction. However, it would seem that e.g. clear cost-advantages should be achieved to raise grater interest of construction companies. The results found similar implications of other studies where producing cost-advantages and developing standardization was emphasized. The market share of WMC in future was seen to either stay at the current levels or to increase. Notably, none of the experts saw that the market share of WMC would decrease toward 2030.