The Story Behind Ireland’s First Fully Modular Primary School
Bridging the gap between increasing Ireland’s housing supply and developing supporting infrastructure is critical. Enter CPAC Modular.
A certain age group in Ireland will remember the school prefabs craze of the 1980s and 1990s. As the population boomed, ballooning class sizes and two classes in one room became increasingly common. Irish infrastructure needed to expand, but financial support from the European Union was taking time to translate to bricks and mortar.
In the interim, extra classroom space arrived in the form of modular cuboids, which soon dotted Irish schoolyards across the country. With timelines for traditional builds of three to five years, and cycles of boom and bust through to the mid-2010s, some schools were left with these ‘temporary’ modular buildings for years longer than intended.
The recent population increase and the inability of the Irish construction sector to keep up has left us with the same problem once again, with widespread acknowledgement from industry and government of the need to build more schools – and fast.
Enter CPAC Modular, a company that has developed Ireland’s first fully modular primary school in Lucan, Co. Dublin, in half the time of a traditional build.
Traditional building cannot deliver the speed of development required, and more modern methods of construction are needed to bridge the gap. Advances in technology have made off-site and modular building popular again – this time for the right reasons.
With strategic oversight and off-site safety controls in place, this type of building is much more efficient than traditional methods in terms of speed, cost-effectiveness, worker safety, project sustainability, use of renewable materials, and level of quality.
CPAC Modular, based in Co. Meath, has pioneered off-site construction methods for educational facilities for many years, culminating in the development of Kishoge Primary School. This is what’s called an ‘Enhanced’ 3D volumetric modular building, a permanent structure with brick finishes and concrete flooring but built using 152 individual 3D modules assembled in an off-site facility and then connected onsite.
And despite this (to-date) unconventional way of building and faster turnaround time, the structure’s 60-year lifespan is identical to that of a traditional build.
Mark Whitehead, Construction Director at CPAC Modular, said what has been achieved with Kishoge Primary School is worthy of recognition across the Irish building sector.
MMC skills are hugely important for us. It's part of our growth plan and we need the future workforce to be able to push forward to complete that growth plan.
Construction Director at CPAC Modular
This ‘first-of-its-kind’ modular-built construction project showcases the very best of modern construction in Ireland. Because the school got to occupy the premises much earlier than if it had been a traditional build, that relieves pressure on the community. While the number of houses being put up in this area is huge, they need the schools and other infrastructure to follow too.