Negócios

For far too long, we have accepted the construction site as an artisanal environment, exposed to waste and uncertainty. That model created cities, jobs and heritage, but it no longer fully responds to contemporary challenges.

Construction is at a point where simply carrying on as before is no longer prudent. Pressure on housing, labour shortages, unpredictable costs, climate urgency and slow processes force us to acknowledge an obvious fact: it is not enough to build more. We need to build differently.

Humanising construction means putting it at the service of people: the family waiting for a home, the student who cannot find a room, the developer who needs to know how much they will pay and when they can deliver, the workers building in difficult conditions, and cities that cannot remain hostage to long and uncertain construction sites.

For far too long, we have accepted the construction site as an artisanal, fragmented environment, exposed to the weather, successive subcontracting, waste and uncertainty. That model created cities, jobs and heritage, but it no longer fully responds to contemporary challenges. Industrialised construction represents a paradigm shift: moving a large part of what currently happens on site into the factory, with more planning, quality and control, and less improvisation.

Recent legislative developments confirm that the country is beginning to recognise this need. The revision of the Public Contracts Code and the announced regulation of industrialised construction may pave the way for greater scale, certification and confidence.

“INDUSTRIALISED CONSTRUCTION REPRESENTS A PARADIGM SHIFT: MOVING A LARGE PART OF WHAT CURRENTLY HAPPENS ON SITE INTO THE FACTORY, WITH MORE PLANNING, QUALITY AND CONTROL, AND LESS IMPROVISATION”

This change brings cost predictability. In traditional construction, the initial price is all too often a fragile expectation. Design errors, omissions, incompatibilities between disciplines, on-site changes and additional works turn budgets into risk exercises. In industrialised construction, the building is defined, coordinated, measured and produced before it reaches the site. The cost is based on a tested, quantified and repeatable system. You are not contracting a promise; you are contracting a controlled process.

It also brings time predictability. While the site is being prepared, different elements of the building can be produced in the factory. They arrive on site coordinated, finished or semi-finished, ready for assembly. The construction site becomes shorter in duration, cleaner and quieter. For investors, this means a reliable schedule; for the city, less disruption; for those who need a home, less waiting.

Building sustainably is not just about choosing materials with a lower carbon footprint. It means designing better, measuring better, cutting better, storing better and wasting less. The factory makes it possible to manage materials rigorously, trace processes and reuse offcuts, reducing debris, transport, corrections and errors. Waste ceases to be inevitable and becomes a variable of design and production.

There is, however, an inertia that must be overcome, and prejudices that we have a duty to clarify - starting with the idea that industrialised construction is temporary, repetitive, poor or lacking in identity. Combating these perceptions is as important as developing technology. That is why we challenged architect Norman Foster and the ARUP engineering team to work with us on defining an industrial construction concept, with the Living Lab acting as an accelerator and demonstrator: a full-scale laboratory where architecture, engineering, industry and use come together to test and validate solutions. The industrial unit where this vision will be scaled up is designed by architect Álvaro Siza. In this way, the product emerging from it will be better placed to show that industrialisation does not take the soul out of construction; it gives it method, quality and a future.

At dstgroup, through ZETHAUS, we turn this vision into industrial practice. The system combines structural 3D units, produced and finished in the factory, with 2D wall or slab panels, façades and 3D subsystems

with integrated infrastructure, such as bathrooms, ensuring flexibility and adaptation to different functional programmes.

This approach shifts the centre of gravity of construction to the factory, but it does not shift the centre of architecture: that remains human life. Industrialising also means dignifying work: reducing extreme physical effort, improving safety, attracting young talent, integrating more women into the sector and creating new professions.

Portugal has the resources, technical expertise and ambition needed to lead this change. With the strength of its industry, the competence of its engineering, the creativity of its architecture and its export experience, the country is well placed to turn this transition into a concrete advantage. For SMEs that take risks, innovate and help the economy grow, industrialised construction opens the way to a new scale of efficiency: greater productivity, cost control, waste reduction, meeting deadlines and a clear transformation of technical knowledge into value. More than a technical evolution, it is about transforming specialised knowledge into economic value, contributing to the modernisation of an essential sector of the Portuguese economy.

Industrialising construction does not mean turning homes into soulless objects. Perhaps, above all, it means accepting that every home begins before construction starts: in the design, the method, the care; and that technology should leave more room for life.

“THE FACTORY MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO MANAGE MATERIALS RIGOROUSLY, TRACE PROCESSES AND REUSE OFFCUTS, REDUCING DEBRIS, TRANSPORT, CORRECTIONS AND ERRORS”

Luís Trigueiros Reis