MODCONS

Modular Construction Case Study

FutureForm – UK – Southwark, London
Modular construction is widely used for hotels, where speed of construction leads to financial
benefits to the hotel operator. A new hotel for Citizen M on busy Southwark Street on
London’s south bank has taken modular construction to a new level of design sophistication.
FutureForm’s modular solution uses a new form of 95 double room and corridor modules of
2.5m width and 15m length together with a small number of single room modules.

Hotel on Lavington Street, Southwark, London

The 6-storey hotel comprises 192 bedrooms, with the hotel reception, restaurant and other
facilities located at ground floor. The modules are built to a high specification including full
height windows, local heating and cooling of the air supply, mood lighting, and a high level of
acoustic separation between the rooms. The modules are supported by a storey steel frame
with the hotel reception and restaurant at first floor.

MODCONS Case Study – FutureForm – UK – CitizenM Page 1 of 3

It was designed to 90 minutes fire resistance with in-built high mist sprinklers, which is in
excess of Building Regulation requirements. The overall wall zone was only 200 mm and the
combined floor and ceiling zone was only 400 mm, which is remarkably narrow for a double
layer construction. A fully glazed façade wall was created by a welded frame using 80 x 40
RHS sections. This rigid frame provides the resistance to horizontal loads acting on the 5-
storey assembly of modules, and also provides the attachment points between the modules.

View inside the atrium of the hotel

The steel structure at ground floor level is based on a 6m x 5m grid and each beam supports
two modules. Steel columns aligned with the width of pairs of modules. Modules weighed up
to 10 Tonne were lifted into place at an average rate of 6 per day by the 50m boom of a 500
Tonne mobile crane positioned roadside. The loads on the foundations were minimised by the
use of lightweight modular construction. The stair and lift modular cores on the upper levels
were installed at the same time as the bedroom modules.
The modular bedrooms are fully finished before delivery to site and the corridors were
finished by second fix services on site. FutureForm’s sub-contract as modular designer and

MODCONS Case Study – FutureForm – UK – CitizenM Page 2 of 3

supplier was only 35% of the total build cost of £14 million. The installation of the modules
took only 5 weeks out of a 9-month construction programme, saving an estimated 6 months
relative to more traditional building, which was very important to the client in the run-up to
the 2012 Olympic Games. The project achieved BREEAM ‘Very Good’. Measured air-tightness
of the modules was 5m3/m2/hour, which is significantly better than traditional building. The
measured sound reduction between rooms was over 60 dB.

Hotel during construction

MODCONS Case Study – FutureForm – UK – CitizenM Page 3 of 3