BACKGROUND
The Greenlandic climate provides challenging conditions for builders, with snow, low temperatures, and strong winds. This, coupled with poor infrastructure, can make it difficult to transport and store building materials or plan and manage workflows. Additionally, many Greenlandic homes are characterized by inadequate maintenance, mold, and lack of insulation to such an extent that they require extensive renovation. Many buildings do not live up to modern standards, which has made people demand better quality housing
In less extreme climates, we are undergoing a paradigm shift towards automated off-site manufacturing of building components like walls, roofs, or larger building modules that can be quickly assembled on site. The shift is being driven by housing shortages, demand for better quality construction, and a lack of skilled labor in the construction sector. Greenland, therefore, seems like a prime candidate for a similar transition as they battle the same driving forces.
The terms off-site manufacturing refers to the manufacturing, planning, design, fabrication, and assembly of building elements at a location other than the final building site. The idea behind the concept is to boost the speed and efficiency of constructing a permanent structure. Raw materials are brought to a facility or production site where the building elements are created. The ready-to-assemble building elements can be in different degrees of advancement, from a flat open wall component with only structural elements to fully operating rooms with installations, claddings, windows, and different interiors. The elements can then be packed in shipping containers and transported to their final destination for quick on-site assembly.
Off-site modular construction and prefabrication are widely known concepts in the literature, but the knowledge is limited to operations in and around developed cities. The literature, including Dodge Data & Analytics (2020), Smith & Rice (2017), and Builtworlds & Skender (2019), claims that off-site manufacturing and modular construction bring several benefits to the construction process, including:
- Shortened project schedules
- Reduced cost
- Higher quality
- Improved safety
My thesis investigates the implications of off-site manufacturing of Greenlandic buildings by analyzing how the construction method fits the Greenlandic social and industrial context. Greenlanders have a natural resistance towards Danish interference and new ideas, especially in the construction sector. One reason for this is the many historical examples of bad initiatives brought to the north by southerners, ideas and methods that do not work in the Greenlandic environment. Before suggesting a new construction method in Greenland, it is essential first to understand the Greenlandic context and investigate the potential implications of the suggested method.
Over the following pages, I provide a resumé of the thesis's methods, analysis, and key findings. The thesis was supervised by Kevin Michael Smith, Martin Kotol, and Giulia Nardelli from the Technical University of Denmark. I submitted the thesis on August 1st, 2021, defended on august 11th, 2021, and received the grade 12 (A).
PROBLEM STATEMENT
There is a considerable shortage of housing in Greenland's larger cities. At the same time, there is a significant renovation backlog and people living in buildings that are not up to the current building standards. These challenges require a social and financially sustainable solution that adds value to Greenlandic society.
This thesis analyzes if and how off-site manufacturing of Greenlandic buildings can help relieve housing shortages by producing socially desirable homes of high quality that are fast and affordable to construct.
METHOD
A deductive approach characterized the investigation; I formed the hypothesis from literature reviews, and from that, I developed a framework to test if the hypothesis holds.
I gathered a mix of qualitative and quantitative data to analyze and outline the benefits and risks of developing off-site manufacturing of Greenlandic buildings. The primary data is qualitative ethnographic material explicitly collected for this thesis. It consists of scratch notes, field notes, interview recordings, pictures, videos and policy papers, reports, website descriptions, newspaper articles, and social media debates. I assembled this data throughout a six-week field trip to Sisimiut in Greenland, where I lived and breathed in a Greenlandic environment. I engaged with the local community in multiple ways through sports activities and community events. Later as I made friendships, I became a part of the community and was invited to various social gatherings. The secondary data consists of quantitative data from measurements and personal requests. I chose the mixed-method, i.e., qualitative and quantitative methods, to link the project-specific qualitative research with external quantitative sources.
Interviews
I emphasized interviewing people from different social and industrial layers to form a holistic view of the stakeholder landscape. Therefore, I interviewed both local engineers and contractors but also carpenters and high school teachers. Each interview was compiled with transcripts and interview notes collected in a qualitative and mixed-methods data analysis tool, MAXQDA.
The interviews were primarily one-on-one interviews to gain insight into people's perceptions, experiences, and understandings of the different topics without leading to groupthink and to give a sense of anonymity.
Observations
The observations are subjective because they represent the researcher's thoughts and experiences. However, when personal observations can be matched with external observations, they form a more objective and genuine portrait. The observations started as field notes, scratch notes, and pictures, which I later transferred to MAXQDA to add to the data pool. These observations could be made anytime during the stay in Sisimiut, e.g., when I interviewed people, walked past construction sites, talked to the waiters, or in the outback.
Literature review
I have conducted literature reviews of 76 different documents and two videos which comprises scientific articles, newspaper articles, official regulations, legislative papers, Danish and Greenlandic media, and social media debates. I used this to build knowledge around the Greenlandic setting and off-site manufacturing to cross-reference the qualitative data.
FRAMEWORK
Qualitative data collection and analysis was the primary approach for this research as there is only limited data on Greenlandic construction challenges and off-site manufacturing in the Arctic. Therefore, I had to personally collect empirical data to understand the context and analyze the challenges. I then developed a framework to code all this data. The framework consists of five perspectives: context, people, complexity, uncertainty, and purpose, with inspiration from J. Geraldi et al. (2017). These five perspectives were used for two purposes.
- To code the qualitative data.
- To analyze the problem statement.
I used tools related to these five perspectives to analyze the problem statement from different angles and check if my hypothesis holds.
Context
Context is shaped by socio-culture and industry practices and is dependent on resources and institutions. Context is in the literature associated with the macro-environment, which comprises all larger social forces that affect the customer market. The purpose of analyzing the macro-environment is to form an understanding that enables appropriate adaptation to the context. The factors that affect the macro-environment are commonly known as PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal aspects). In the thesis, I analyze all these different aspects of the context through qualitative data.
People
Projects are managed through communication with stakeholders. Effective communication is thus recognized as a critical project success factor. According to Kuthilala (2014), a stakeholder's salience is decided by assessing the stakeholder's power, legitimacy, and urgency. The salience model can be used to identify the type of stakeholder, and following the suggestions from Gardner et al. (1989), this can be used to assess the stakeholder's influence and interest in the project, which finally helps to prioritize communication through a communication strategy. In the thesis, I made a stakeholder analysis to identify and analyze the necessary communicative relationships.
Complexity
The development of an off-site manufacturing process and pairing that with the Greenlandic needs is a complex task. It calls for integrating diverse tools and knowledge bases across multiple parties, calling for the collaboration of people with different backgrounds and the reconciliation of stakeholders' different views and interests. Within the complexity perspective, I created two work breakdown structures to compare the tasks and costs of a conventional construction method with off-site construction. I then estimated different costs to highlight examples and to substantiate my findings.
Uncertainty
Every project is unique and comes with unique unknowns, uncertainties, and risks. The uncertainty perspective is about mapping the uncertainties to understand their characteristics. By recognizing uncertainties, it is possible to develop a strategy to deal with the uncertain and unknowns that will reveal themselves ahead (J. Geraldi et al., 2017).
Evaluating the risk likelihood and impact gives a project team an efficient way to identify to what extent they can prevent the risk from influencing the project negatively. Documenting risks helps streamline goals and perceptions of the project, and I did this by creating a risk register.
Purpose
The purpose is about identifying why we should do this project? - followed by what would it deliver?
Although purpose seems vital to projects, it has not traditionally been covered in best practices and guidelines for project management (J. Geraldi et al., 2017). Tools have been developed in the interface between organizational context and projects and are considered outside project management. The classic form of measuring a project's success is evaluating whether it meets time, cost, and scope constraints. However, researchers suggest that this traditional way of evaluating project success is not optimal on its own. Alternatively, one could consider and combine the three constraints with stakeholder satisfaction.
I utilized a SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to summarize all the findings from the other perspectives to outline the purpose, rewards, and risks of developing off-site manufacturing of Greenlandic buildings.
RESULTS
Most construction efforts can reduce housing shortages by simply building more homes; however, the attractiveness of the construction method is guided by its implications relative to other solutions. The success criteria for developing off-site manufacturing of Greenlandic buildings are based on its' ability to reduce housing shortages by creating socially desirable homes of high quality that are faster and more affordable to construct relative to a conventional construction method. The following priority list elaborates on the success criteria
- To be socially attractive, off-site manufacturing of Greenlandic buildings must be adaptable to the Greenlandic context, respect Greenlandic culture, and account for Greenlandic challenges.
- The off-site constructions should be of high quality and live up to modern housing standards. They should be airtight but ventilated and be durable but easy to assemble and disassemble
- The off-site constructions should reduce construction time and make it easier to plan and manage timetables.
- The total construction cost of off-site constructions should be lower than with the conventional method, and the homes should consequently become more affordable for the residents.
The Greenlandic context
Greenland has a rich history of being subject to colonization, making Greenlanders less open to foreign interference. The Greenlandic population has lived in a society that has been in rapid change from local communities with an economic base in hunting and fishing to today's international wage worker society. This rapid change comes with some frustrations and with many people yearning for a simpler lifestyle. However, Greenlanders do not want to be without modern technology and welfare, and thus Greenlanders look to become self-sufficient before becoming a sovereign nation.
Greenlanders tend to feel excluded from certain decisions and policymaking regarding Greenland and feel Denmark is setting the agenda on the Greenlanders' behalf. This feeling of not being listened to is evident from multiple newspaper articles and observations made in Greenland and from recent media discussions like the documentary "Kampen om Grønland" by DR1 in 2020. In this documentary, the viewer is presented with multiple experiences and statements by Greenlanders about self-reliance and independence.
Many Greenlanders are dependent on public housing, as the rent is set low. It is often below the market price and thus below what the construction costs dictate, and therefore, it is not easy to maintain a turnover where renovations and reinvestments can be afforded.
The unemployment rate in Greenland is extremely low. However, people do not get as highly educated as, e.g., in Denmark, meaning that the majority are working jobs within the service industry, fishing, hunting, and craftsman trades. High qualifications and great adaptability are needed to fill several existing jobs and many of the future. The foundation for raising the qualifications of the workforce is laid in primary and lower secondary schools. Today, Greenland spends many resources on primary and lower secondary schools (Danmarks Nationalbank, 2019). However, the Greenlandic education system replicates the Danish system without much adaptation for Greenlandic culture, and students must put particular efforts into learning Danish to do well in high school. Out of the 35 teachers at the high school in Sisimiut, only 5 are Greenlanders, and the rest are foreigners (mostly Danes). However, it is usually the opposite in elementary school, with most teachers being Greenlandic and almost no Danish teachers. Greenlanders learn Danish as a second language in elementary school but prefer speaking Greenlandic outside school. Numbers from Greenland Statistics show that only about 50% of the students enrolling at the high schools in Greenland complete their education, and the same is true, if not lower, for the universities (Kjældgaard Jensen & Pedersen, 2020).
Construction Challenges
Due to Greenland's large size, small population, and the fact that transport is not an everyday activity, there is a lack of native building specialists in the cities and settlements outside Nuuk. In addition, people do not get as highly educated as in, e.g., Denmark meaning that foreigners often must be flown in to help solve specific building issues, which is both costly and time-demanding
It is particularly difficult to plan and schedule construction projects in Greenland for two reasons. One is due to the unpredictable, harsh weather, and the other is due to worker reliability. It is common for people in the Greenlandic construction industry to work 55-60 hours a week from Monday to Saturday. A consequence of this large workload is that people also tend to take one "sick" day a week to get more time with their families. However, the construction workers appear to be satisfied with their long work week. They even express that a shorter workweek would not be possible in Greenland and that if they were to work 37 hours in construction, they would most likely find a side job. A local contractor has even experimented with a 37-hour workweek for its construction workers by offering a monthly salary comparable to the hourly rate, meaning workers would get paid the same. It was not a success for unspecified reasons, as the construction workers preferred to work more hours with an hourly rate.
The challenge with the preferred long workweek is the consequential arbitrary sick days workers take to have more time with their families. If the construction manager cannot trust the workers will come to work, it is challenging to plan tasks, especially when tasks are dependent on each other. The direct effect of this worker unpredictability is reflected in almost every construction project in Greenland, with most projects experiencing time and cost overruns.
The lack of natural resources is a big challenge as building materials need to be shipped to the country by boat. Off-site manufactured building elements should be able to handle transport to various remote locations. Most big cities in Greenland have roads and access for cargo ships; however, there needs to be an alternative transport solution for the smaller settlements without roads and access by large ships.
The implications of off-site manufacturing
Off-site manufacturing of Greenlandic buildings will bring better quality assurance as it is easier to quality control individual elements than an entire building envelope. Therefore, off-site manufactured homes will have better insulation coverage and fewer air gaps in the construction, leading to higher quality homes.
Off-site construction companies often have a catalog of multiple predetermined building elements that fit in various configurations. The benefit of this is that the building elements can easily be replicated and reused from previous construction projects. Working with templates and replicating elements makes manufacturing easy as elements do not have to be designed from scratch for every project. Therefore, off-site construction is only dependent on a few specialists to design the initial building elements and manufacturing process, which minimizes the need for foreign interference.
Additionally, it is easier to plan and schedule construction projects as construction tasks can occur concurrently and are not as dependent on each other as with a conventional construction method. Building elements like walls and roofs can be manufactured concurrently with any site development, thereby giving a much faster construction time while reducing the impact of unpredictable workers.
Waste efficiency and productivity are to be prioritized in the construction industry. Excess off-cuts, over-ordering, and on-site packaging are some of the aspects that can be reduced by using a systematic approach as off-site manufacturing require. Extra material can be reused and recycled in-house, significantly reducing waste that otherwise had gone to a landfill. Assembling materials in a warehouse also lessens the packaging on-site, as materials are delivered ready for assembly.
Barriers towards off-site construction
The most significant barriers for realizing off-site construction in Greenland are similar to the most significant barriers reported in the literature. The construction industry is highly conservative, which is also true for Greenland. This conservatism, coupled with resistance towards foreign interference and ideas, makes it highly delicate to propose a change in working culture and habits. To succeed with developing off-site manufacturing of Greenlandic buildings, one would have to work with people to convince them that off-site construction will give more opportunity for self-reliance, more choice, and option through design choices for both the construction professionals and residents.
Since Greenland is an island-operated community, transport is a significant challenge as no interlinking road infrastructure exists. Therefore, transport in between cities and settlements happens by boat, plane, helicopter, and snowmobiles. The off-site manufactured building elements need to handle transport to various remote locations, which is not easy as elements are less maneuverable than simple building materials.
CONCLUSION
The housing shortage in Greenland is mainly a problem in Nuuk, Sisimiut, and Illulisaat, where the population is expanding, and the renovation backlog is increasing together with demands for homes of higher quality. Off-site manufacturing of Greenlandic houses can relieve these housing shortages by producing socially desirable homes of high quality that are fast to construct. However, transporting prefabricated building elements is more expensive and challenging than transporting raw building materials and equipment, and off-site manufacturing is therefore not a more affordable solution than a conventional construction method.
Social desirability in Greenland is related to providing people the opportunity for self-reliance with more choices and options. Off-site manufacturing can do this by allowing Greenlandic building professionals to design the elements and processes themselves. The off-site manufacturing process is fully scalable and can vary from a single wall construction to a fully operational manufacturing process. The manufacturing process should be in Greenland to favor the Greenlandic economy and create more jobs. The construction method only requires few buildings specialists, which helps empower the Greenlandic workers and makes foreign interference less likely.
FURTHER WORK
This thesis focused on explaining and highlighting the different aspects of off-site manufacturing of Greenlandic buildings so that others can make more informed decisions and plan further research. The next step is to create a proof of concept from which we can learn and quantify the specific costs and benefits in monetary value.
I would suggest applying for research funds to have a Greenlandic-based company design an off-site manufactured single-family home that a Greenlandic contractor is to build. While doing this, I would overview the processes and document requirements, times, costs, quality, and collaboration efforts. I would pay special attention to how workers conceive the construction process and how satisfied the residents are with the finished home. A test case like that would give valuable experiences and learnings for further investigations.
PERSPECTIV
Off-site construction is a known concept, and there are already examples of the construction method in Greenland. Instead of seeking to improve the construction method, I aimed to find a sustainable way of developing the method so that it fits the social and industrial environment.
The unity of the Danish realm (Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands) is under pressure due to a lack of understanding. A survey by EPINION in 2019 called "Danske unges viden om grønland" reviewed how young Danes perceives Greenlanders, what they associate with Greenland, and the Greenlandic people. It showed that most Danes do not feel a tight connection to Greenland and that the average Dane's knowledge about Greenland is limited to basic facts like demographics, nature, and climate. It also showed many Greenlanders' experience being exposed to discrimination, stigma, and prejudice from Danish society because they are Greenlanders.
I hope this study will inspire Danes to consider the social and industrial context when engaging in projects in Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Projects are made for people, and native people are the greatest specialist on subjects connected to their native country. As outsiders, we need to listen to the native people to understand the environment and create a shared understanding. Only by having a shared understanding can we create great projects together for a better future.