by Brianna Crandall — February 6, 2017 — High-performance prefabicated interiors manufacturer DIRTT and its Middle East partner design-build workplace solutions provider NMG Solutions installed a two-story state-of-the-art medical interior in just three days for the Arab Health Congress and Exhibition in Dubai, with a construction method that could ease some of the Middle East’s most pressing building challenges.
DIRTT and NMG Solutions installed the two-story state-of-the-art prefab medical interior in just 3 days using interactive 3D design and specification technology.
DIRTT CEO Mogens Smed commented:
The cost of building a healthcare facility is enormous, especially when you consider the amount of time conventional builds take. By the time construction is finished, you’re left with something out of date before you even move in. We’re demonstrating a higher-quality, faster, more efficient way to build that leaves the client with a long-term solution that’s also sustainable.
With interactive three-dimensional (3D) design and specification technology at its core, DIRTT’s approach streamlines planning and design through to manufacturing, installation and beyond. For the Middle East, where raw construction materials must often be imported while labor shortages and cost overruns pose a growing threat, the benefits of manufactured construction are felt in mitigated labor and faster build schedules. Off-site manufacturing also provides consistent and high-quality results in spaces that remain flexible over time.
Smed continued:
The business case here is you’re spending less on material, less on labor, and getting a more sophisticated and highly functional healthcare interior in a compressed timeframe – and it’s flexible to meet changing needs in the long term. When someone says sustainability doesn’t make sense from a financial point of view, there’s no greater illustration against it than what DIRTT’s doing.
Guests to the NMG and DIRTT display at Arab Health, which ran January 30 to February 2, 2017, saw a freestanding two-story structure that blends modern manufacturing with customization and craftsmanship. Features of the medical interior included DIRTT’s timber frame, touch-triggered cabinetry, wall-integrated technology and medical gases, Corning Willow Glass with custom graphics, and intricate laser-cut metal railings. Many elements from last year’s exhibit were re-used or repurposed into the new display.
Guests were also able to try virtual reality (VR) technology that operates with manufacturing intelligence. DIRTT takes the realism of VR and combines it with the company’s ICE software, creating a direct link between a client’s VR experience and the manufacturing factory.
NMG and DIRTT have completed more than 70 healthcare projects in the Middle East to date. DIRTT recently opened a Green Learning Center in London, building on existing business operations in India, Singapore, the United States and Canada.
The 72-hour medical interior build was documented on DIRTT’s Arab Health 2017 blog, with videos from each day as well as reactions from visitors to the VR technology within the space.
DIRTT Environmental Solutions (Doing it Right This Time) uses its proprietary 3D software to design, manufacture and install fully customized prefabricated interiors for customers in the corporate, government, education and healthcare sectors, with four U.S. manufacturing facilities and more than 100 sales distribution partners throughout North America, the Middle East and Asia.
