Building Ingenuity in the Education Sector

With the introduction of their Hybrid Modular construction format, Cpac Modular are ‘out the door’ with orders for this extended life and sustainable solution to modular educational building.

Established close to 40 years now, the company bas grown from strength to strength to become one of Ireland’s leading modular building companies with projects nationwide. It provides its clients with a full design, planning, offsite construction, onsite assembly and fit-out service of modular building solutions throughout the country.

“We’re established around 40 years now and have come a long way from our origins as a cabin hire business,” says Martin Murray, Sales and Business Development Manager of Cpac Modular.
“Basically, there are three core market areas and it has three different levels of construction available.” he explains; “with the standard modular units that you see for schools etc, about 80% of the construction is under roof. There’s no waste because we construct it in the factory and assemble onsite.”
“The second area is Hybrid Modular and the steel frame units give you a little bit more flexibility along with higher grade roofing systems. This system also means that architects can be much more creative with the design, as it allows for wide variety of cladding materials and both internal and external finishes.”

One of Cpac Modular’s more recent projects, Griffeen Community College, is a great example of a Hybrid Modular model. This particular project has been a springboard to many other projects that Cpac Modular are currently working on. Hybrid modular building has a very much extended lifetime of 20 years plus.

“The third area then is Permanent Modular, which is upping the ante in terms of materials and longevity. We expect our Permanent Modular buildings will have a life time of over 65 years. At the moment we’re going through a number of testing requirements and passing all the standard tests so we’re hoping to have the model available by later this year,” adds Murray. Cpac Modular provides a complete end to end solution from design to fit-out. “Having a full professional design team in-house who understand and work with BIM systems every day is a huge advantage for us,” says Alan Boyce, Marketing and Bid Manager. “It means that an architect can have a more sophisticated design vision that would normally not be possible using a modular approach and we can provide a solution that satisfies both their creative and technical requirements. In addition, we can communicate and present their design concepts back to them in a way they can understand and immediately link back into their own in-house architectural design platforms.”

Business is booming at the moment for the company in spite of the challenges for the industry brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s a really good, young and vibrant team that we have and you need that in this line of work.” “Being able to react is important and the client can see where the project is at any one time, They can visit the factory here any time to carry out an offsite inspection of the building in construction and I suppose one of the biggest things also is the relationship with architects. That is central.”

Cpac Modular is a complete turnkey operation and one in which clients can be assured of excellent service at all times. It’s this service that sees the company’s books full up with projects nationwide at the present time and they have six high profile educational building projects to deliver by the end of the year, including a large school in Cork and another larger school building in Greystones, Co. Wicklow.

For Martin Murray, the secret to Cpac Modular success comes down to a couple of different factors with experience and expertise being the common denominators. “When a client engages Cpac Modular for a project they are getting sustainable construction methods, offsite rapid build, quick onsite installation and full fit-out service all delivered by the best project management team in the business,” says Martin.