By Cody Roberdeau, president of Constructive, an Elements Studio
The construction industry is at a tipping point. Labor shortages, compressed schedules, cost containment, and rising safety and sustainability standards are pushing every sector, from healthcare to hospitality, to rethink how buildings are delivered. Increasingly, the answer is prefabrication.
I entered this space nearly two decades ago—not because I had prefab experience, but because I was searching for an evolution in construction methods. Traditional construction felt inefficient, outdated, and linear—especially for clients with tight schedules who didn’t want to sacrifice design or budget. What drew me in was the potential to reimagine the process: to deliver more functional, better-looking spaces, faster and smarter.
Today, technology has caught up with that vision. Industry-standard tools like Revit, BIM 360, and Revit Plugins are streamlining coordination from design to fabrication. When prefab is integrated early, we gain complete design clarity—helping trades understand scope, reduce rework, and accelerate timelines. These aren’t static kits of parts. Our interior systems support utilities, integrate ceilings, and span deck-to-deck—opening the door to a broader range of applications than ever before.
Safety Through Smarter Building
Prefabrication isn’t just faster—it’s safer. Construction is consistently ranked among the most hazardous industries, with job sites filled with dust, noise, and risk. General Contractors rank safety as a top concern, and prefab helps reduce risk. By moving labor into a clean, controlled factory setting, we dramatically reduce the number of trades on site—and with it, the ladders, scaffolding, and chaos that lead to incidents.
It’s cleaner too. Our prefinished walls eliminate dust-generating steps like sanding, mudding, and painting—reducing airborne particles and VOCs. In healthcare renovations, that’s huge. Many of our clients are working in occupied clinical settings, where air quality and infection control are critical. With prefab, we avoid the need for temporary dust mitigation or containment zones. Our systems come with acoustic seals, antimicrobial surfaces, and gasketing that meets healthcare-grade durability and cleanability. We routinely hit STC ratings over 50, helping healthcare clients meet FGI guidelines and ensure doctor-patient privacy—even mid-renovation.
This level of clean, controlled construction doesn’t just benefit hospitals—it also applies to lobbies, restrooms, pharmacies, industrial workspaces, simply to name a few.
Who’s Adopting—and Why
Healthcare is leading adoption, and for good reason. Aging infrastructure and demand for outpatient services are forcing systems to build faster without sacrificing quality. Clinics, pharmacies, clean rooms—we can deliver them faster, more consistently, and often without shutting down operations. New construction is also ramping up for small to mid-sized outpatient facilities.
The industrial sector is next. In warehouses and manufacturing facilities with 20- to 40-foot ceilings, prefab lets us build enclosed rooms without tying into the deck. These systems are flexible, durable, and offer acoustic performance that exceeds expectations.
Hospitality is evolving, too. Whether it’s hotels, office amenities, or shared lounges, today’s spaces demand a hospitality-inspired aesthetic—something prefab can deliver with speed and consistency. Elevator lobbies, for example, are often overlooked during renovations because of the disruption they cause. But prefab solutions reduce that downtime and allow for reskinning in the future when the brand needs to refresh. It’s fast, it’s safe, and it’s beautiful.
Breaking the Myths
Prefab still gets misunderstood. The most common pushback is cost—but when coordinated early, prefab delivers cost certainty and schedule compression. It also avoids late-stage redesigns and trade coordination issues, which can balloon costs in traditional builds.
Some worry that prefab can’t meet design expectations. In reality, the solutions today have evolved to meet capabilities the project requires. The client and project team do not need to compromise the vision to use prefab.
The most consistent reason clients keep coming back is speed to market. While we’re sometimes mistakenly seen as a “long lead” item, we’re often driving the schedule on an aggressive, coordinated path. In fact, we’re accelerating timelines and helping clients meet critical market launch goals.
Try It, Then Repeat It
Perhaps the strongest endorsement we’ve heard from clients is simple: “Once we tried it, we didn’t want to go back.” Prefab offers a repeatable, scalable approach that creates consistency across locations—without sacrificing quality.
It’s now being used in areas we hadn’t imagined just a few years ago—pharmacies, public restrooms, elevator lobbies, and amenity spaces. As systems evolve, so does their potential. But for prefab to truly take hold, we need more teams—clients, users, architects, developers—to try it once and see that it’s not just about speed, it’s about smarter, safer, more resilient building.
One of the best insights I’ve heard from a client was this: “Prefab isn’t the risk. The risk is building the way we always have.”
Prefab isn’t a trend. It’s a shift. And like any meaningful shift, it starts with curiosity—and a desire to do better. That’s what drew me here in the first place.
Since joining Elements in 2005, Cody Roberdeau has been at the forefront of interior prefab solutions, quickly establishing himself as a leading expert in Colorado and beyond. He’s led transformative projects, including a national program for a major healthcare provider that accelerated timelines and reduced costs. Now, he focuses on revolutionizing design and construction coordination, demonstrating how programmatic design and standardization maximize the benefits of interior prefab by blending conventional construction with off-site prefabrication for faster, more efficient project delivery. Contact Cody at croberdeau@elementsofplace.com
