What was interesting, was the reason why a full precast solution was not considered for the project. The condominiums were sold parallel during the construction time and each new owner had an opportunity to influence the design, e.g. electricity and even HVAC, of the new apartment. The final users of the building were offered the ultimate flexibility, which in turn lead to delayed structural design. Therefore cast-in situ was chosen for the final construction method. Unfortunately it also led in many cases to very small order batches and sub-optimized orders of construction materials. The total construction time was estimated to be 2 years, which is pretty long when comparing it to a precast building method.
Are we sometimes giving too much flexibility for the users of buildings? Would they be happy to have less flexibility, but ready building with shorter construction time and less total cost? These were my questions after this visit. But of course I was happy to see Peikko’s PSB being used!
