Making Sustainability Attainable in Construction
Nexii’s modular building process reduces waste, cost, carbon impact, and construction time
To meet the needs of a growing global population and a growing middle class, we’re going to see the number of buildings on Earth double in the next 40 years. To build all those structures without damaging the ecosystem, we need to build differently than we have so far. Nexii is a Canadian-based company that has taken a modular approach to sustainable construction, reducing carbon impact, cost, and construction waste while accelerating the building process by up to 75%. Using a proprietary building material called Nexiite that’s an alternative to concrete and wood, they create customized wall, floor, and roofing panels in their manufacturing facilities, then assemble them rapidly on site. Callahan Tufts, design lead at Nexii, shares some of their projects, including a two-bedroom house that was assembled by a crew of five in only four days, and which can be disassembled and reassembled at another location. And he shares a standalone coffee shop that was assembled in six days, lowering embodied carbon by 20% and reducing physical waste by 13,000 pounds. What’s more, the panels can be replaced, repaired, reused, and recycled later in the building lifecycle. This industrialized approach to construction is proving that we can build more economically, more quickly—and also more sustainably.
About the speaker
Callahan Tufts is the Nebula design lead at Nexii Building Solutions, where he ideates new creative concepts and designs for Nexii buildings and retrofit concepts. An experienced building design professional, Callahan worked as a research partner for the BC Tiny House Collective and as a concept designer for Small Housing BC. He’s a past winner of the Forestry Innovation Award from Emily Carr University.
Related learning
Learn more about the possibilities for industrialized construction with these AU sessions:
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