New York, NY SG Blocks, Inc., a leading designer, innovator and fabricator of container-based structures, has teamed up with Grimshaw, a global leader in architecture, planning and industrial design across many major sectors, to build pre-fabricated modular based education facilities. These facilities have been necessitated due to the impact of COVID-19 throughout the education sector from schools to colleges, placing a strain on current teaching spaces.

Under this joint agreement, SG Blocks and Grimshaw will develop scalable, customizable and rapidly-deployable education facilities that can be utilized as classrooms, spaces for teaching, workshops, dining, recreation, sports and/or other education-related purposes. Additionally, the team has designed pressurized 150 housing units to allow for the quarantine of COVID-infected community members.

“Using SG Blocks’ pre-fabricated modular structures and Grimshaw’s unparalleled designs, we intend to construct state-of-the-art education facilities that can be easily deployed and scaled depending on market demand,” said Paul Galvin, chairman and CEO of SG Blocks. “In the COVID-19 era, these considerations are especially critical.”

“The global demand for flexible modular educational facilities is significant. Our expandable approach provides decision makers safe options to house, educate and protect the vulnerable,” said Andrew Whalley, Grimshaw chairman.

The companies also made the strategic decision to combine delivery and supply chains in the fulfillment of orders. The Grimshaw supply chain has decades of experience delivering modular structures across the globe and as such greatly increases the geographic reach of products. Additionally, it should allow products to be delivered into markets where pricing was previously challenging.

SG Blocks and Grimshaw have partnered in the past, including in June 2018, when SG Blocks signed a master services agreement with Grimshaw for exclusive container-based modular design. Under this agreement, Grimshaw serves as SG Blocks’ premier design partner and incorporates SG Blocks’ container-based structures into its global, award-winning industrial design portfolio.

The firms also collaborated in September 2018, when SG Blocks displayed a single-family container-based modular home at the 15th Annual Five-Star Conference and Expo in Dallas, Texas, and Grimshaw showcased its collaboration through an innovative animated video and physical models exhibited throughout the prototype.