Like Lego, Quickly... Building 1,000 Public Housing Units with Modular Assembly

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's 'Smart Construction Activation Plan'
Goal of Full Digitalization and Automation by 2030

The government is set to mandate the adoption of BIM (Building Information Modeling · 3D design) to enhance productivity in the construction industry and will actively promote smart construction initiatives such as unmanned operation of construction machinery and expansion of modular housing. This comes from the assessment that the construction industry is lagging in digital capabilities compared to other sectors and is primarily operated by an aging workforce, leading to a slowdown in growth.

On the 20th, Lee Won-jae, the 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, announced the "Smart Construction Activation Plan" at the opening ceremony of the 'Smart Construction Enterprise Support Center 2' held at the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology.

◆ Digitalization of the construction industry through BIM adoption... Mandatory implementation in all public construction projects by 2030 = First, to digitalize the construction industry, the adoption of BIM will be gradually expanded and related institutional improvements will be pursued.

BIM is a technology that designs and constructs based on three-dimensional spatial information of buildings, helping to comprehensively perform planning, design, construction, and maintenance of buildings, which is difficult with traditional two-dimensional drawings.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to establish BIM implementation guidelines this month, which define BIM standards and work procedures, and aims to digitalize design and construction standards by 2027 to enable verification of compliance with construction standards in a BIM environment.

Additionally, BIM application will be mandated for road construction projects exceeding 100 billion KRW ordered by public entities by the second half of this year, and subsequently, BIM will be made compulsory for all public construction projects by 2030.

To promote BIM adoption in the private sector, incentives will also be provided. BIM competency evaluation will be newly added as an assessment item in the comprehensive evaluation bidding system (Jongsimje) applied to public projects within this year, and consulting support will be offered to companies with BIM capabilities to obtain international standard certifications.

Furthermore, to prepare for the increased demand for design professionals due to BIM mandatory adoption, specialized training will be conducted focusing on experienced personnel, and the number of trainees in BIM courses, which currently stands at around 200, will be doubled to 400 by 2025 with full tuition support from the Employment Insurance Fund.

◆ Supporting the spread of modular construction like LEGO... 1,000 public housing units = The Off Site Construction (OSC) method, which has advantages in shortening construction periods and improving quality and safety, will also be promoted.

OSC involves manufacturing construction components such as concrete wall panels in modular forms at factories and then assembling them on-site like LEGO blocks. This method allows for rapid production of uniformly high-quality products regardless of weather conditions and reduces complaints and safety accidents at construction sites. Construction periods can be shortened by 20% to 50% compared to traditional methods.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to issue public housing construction projects of 1,000 units using OSC next year and support the projects through measures such as raising the loan limits of the Housing and Urban Fund.

Moreover, OSC will be actively promoted for educational facilities by utilizing it during the short construction periods of school rebuilding and remodeling, as well as for research, medical, and military facilities.

To facilitate the private sector’s adoption of OSC, amendments to the Housing Act will be pursued within this year to relax floor area ratio, building coverage ratio, and height restrictions at the permitting stage, and related standards will be revised by the first half of next year.

In addition, joint public-private research and development (R&D) will be conducted to advance core OSC technologies, with a particular focus on applying OSC methods to buildings over 20 stories, where demand is high.

◆ Securing 'efficiency and safety' with drones and robots = The Ministry will also revise regulations to facilitate automation of construction machinery and the introduction of robots.

Construction standards related to quality and safety will be established starting with highly demanded automated construction machinery equipment, and a legal basis will be created to recognize special cases for unmanned operation such as remote control and full automation.

A 'SOC Performance Testing Ground' will be established in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, to allow companies to freely demonstrate and verify smart technologies and equipment they have developed. Plans are also underway to include smart technologies and equipment in the autonomous adjustment items of total project costs to allow design changes when new technologies are utilized.

In the construction and maintenance sectors, safety equipment that integrates Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide early warnings of risks will be lent free of charge to the private sector, with support targets expanding especially to safety-vulnerable sites.

Standards and evaluation criteria will be revised to enable safety inspections, which were previously conducted manually by workers, to be performed using advanced equipment such as drones and robots.

A Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport official stated, "We plan to operate a legal body involving industry, academia, research institutes, and government to discuss policies and technical issues related to smart construction, and establish a Smart Construction Regulatory Innovation Center within the Ministry to provide one-stop services that address companies’ difficulties."

Meanwhile, according to consulting firm McKinsey, the productivity growth rate of Korea’s construction industry over the past 20 years has averaged 1.0% annually, which is lower than manufacturing (3.6%) and the overall industrial average (2.7%). The level of digitalization in construction is about 6%, which is lower than manufacturing (28%) and even agriculture (10%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.