Ascension Living was introduced to the building market by Beechwood Homes (NSW) back in 2016, for the purpose of streamlining the granny flat industry. As part of continued innovation, the Beechwood Group began investigating the benefits of modular construction in 2013. While the focus was initially upon overcoming obstacles thrown up on building traditionally on difficult sites, the far-reaching ramifications soon became apparent to the point where a separate division of the business was formed. Since then, Ascension Living and The Beechwood Group have worked with major partners such as Defence Housing Australia and HomeWorld.
Unlike other modular systems, Ascension’s modular building system offers the client ultimate choice. Depending on site characteristics, client needs, budget and time, buildings can be constructed on traditional concrete foundations or screw piers. Using the screw pier method, a structural module is craned into place on top of piers, then the building’s steel structure is completed with pre-fabricated structural elements and the building is secured within a few days (rather than several weeks using traditional building methods). Construction then continues in the traditional way with internal fixtures, furnishings and features. These are not kits, or shipping containers, or pre-fabricated homes. With this method, modular construction is often well suited to difficult lots.
Ascension Living combines combines the best of both worlds – the speed of a modular construction and the quality of traditional finishing methods.
The main points of difference are that:
- The structure differs from a traditionally built structures because of the innovative modular construction system, which allows the structure to be constructed much quicker.
- Key items of construction activity are already completed off site, offering significant time savings.
- Less time is required on site from establishment to lock up stage, meaning less exposure to delaying factors such as bad weather.
- Fewer trades are required on site to complete construction activities, leading to less disturbance and waste.
As you would expect, Ascension Living offers a structural guarantee and peace-of-mind because it is part of Beechwood.
The framework for the road plan developed between Beechwood Homes and Ascension focused mainly on sustainability and design challenges. The three main objectives of this framework are to move away from heavy transportable vehicles to reduce carbon footprint, reduce waste from landfill to minimise environmental impacts and design homes with people in mind by providing healthy and a comfortable environment indoors.
First, to eliminate the heavy transportable vehicles like oversize trucks and cranes used to carry and place modular buildings to site, Ascension manufactured the flat pack technology. The modules are pre-fabricated off-site, they are then delivered to site with double glazed windows and all the material to construct the building in a flat pack and then assembled on site, further reducing the carbon footprint of double handling of materials to and from the site.
Second, to minimise waste from building materials and divert from landfill, Ascension modules are manufactured to size and design from the factory process, therefore every building is manufactured to its individual size. Final, design for the people in mind, every Ascension design has healthy, resilient and positive aspects embedded to the building.
The objectives were achieved thanks to the many years of research conducted prior, and countless trials to ensure that BCA and AS/NZ Standards were achieved and exceeded.