Prefabricated building, a form of construction popular in Scandinavian countries and the rest of Western Europe, has yet to become standard practice in Croatia.
Among the first examples of public modular building in these parts are two kindergartens, one opened in Samobor in 2013, while the other is currently being built in Sračinec near Varaždin, reports Lokalni.hr.
Director of Detmers Kontejner company Maja Buconjić Barišić explained that the main reason for such rare occasions of prefab construction is insufficient education. „In Scandinavian countries, in Sweden for example, it’s an extremely well-received form of construction. If little Swedes can go to container kindergartens, I see no reason why the Croatian kids wouldn’t. Local architects like to design public buildings as monuments to their own person; they use expensive materials, and nobody thinks about saving the budget money. Nobody cares about the future cost of maintenance.“ said Barišić.
Detmers Kontejner is a company from Sveti Križ Začretje that built the kindergarten in Samobor, and is working on current projects in Sračinec and Požega. The main advantage of modular building is the lower total cost than in regular construction that uses brick and concrete: if the kindergarten in Sračinec was built using traditional methods, it would’ve cost anywhere between 9 and 10 million kuna. This way, the total investment doesn’t exceed 3,8 million kuna after tax.
Another advantage of modular building is the shorter overall construction period – the kindergarten in Samobor was completed in 6 months, including 22 break days due to snow. Modules are industrially manufactured and sent to building sites where they get assembled and welded together, and the resulting objects are also more earthquake-resistant because they physically cannot collapse.
(Photo: TCN)
