A Review on the Factors Affecting the Use of Offsite Construction in Multifamily Housing in the United States

Abstract

The increasing demand for multifamily housing in the United States requires alternatives for building more affordable and sustainable housing to improve the quality of life for millions of families. Offsite construction (OSC) strategies may be a viable alternative for tackling this problem. Although the use of OSC is significant in the multifamily housing market in the world and it is also very promising in the US, a scarce amount of literature has focused on this topic. The purpose of this study is to identify specific factors that affect decisions on the use of OSC in multifamily housing in the US. Focusing on the sustainability dimensions of construction—social, environmental, and economic—the authors reviewed literature that was published between 2000 and 2019 and identified factors that are related to OSC adoption in general construction, in housing construction, and, more specifically, in multifamily housing construction in the US. Subsequently, a discussion on some important factors affecting decisions on the use of OSC in the American multifamily market is provided. The discussion focused on factors that, although important, have been under explored in the literature that addresses the use of OSC in multifamily projects, especially in the US, which are: customer’s attitude, building performance, and building comfort and indoor environmental quality (IEQ). In addition, a brief discussion regarding the importance of design to the uptake of OSC in multifamily projects is provided. This is one of the first studies dedicated to exploring the social, environmental, and economic factors that affect the use of OSC in multifamily housing in the US. The study also identifies research gaps, which serve as a roadmap for future research.

Potential of Modular Offsite Construction for Emergency Situations: A New Zealand Study

“…The affordability of modular offsite construction compared to conventional methods during post-disaster events stands on top of the factors in Table 5 with MR 5.63. Modular offsite affordable houses have been considered in other studies, which confirms that this method could be an option in many situations, such as emergency responses [105,106]. This is followed by weather-independent nature due to a controlled factory environment [107,108] and simple onsite expansion with MR 2.89 and 2.79, respectively.…”

Social network analysis for identifying the significant drivers of off-site construction adoption in Egypt

“…Also, it contributes to improving health and safety (Jeong et al, 2021;Qin and Yao, 2020) and reduces accidents by 80% (Navaratnam et al, 2022). Besides, OSC can maximize construction quality (Nanyam et al, 2017;Hussein and Zayed, 2021;Abd Jalil et al, 2021), promote productivity (Choi et al, 2017;Gusmao et al, 2020) and reduce the industry's dependency on manpower (Jeong et al, 2021), saving up to 25% of on-site labor costs (Ismail et al, 2022), hence reducing construction costs (Navaratnam et al, 2022;Bari et al, 2012). Furthermore, OSC maintains a high level of certainty about the predictable construction costs (Wuni and Shen, 2019b;Oti-Sarpong et al, 2022).…”

Identification and Evaluation of the Key Decision Support Factors for Selecting Off-site Construction in Canada: A Building Information Modeling (BIM)-enabled Approach

“…This statement aligns with the overall ranking, which shows that cost-related factors ranked the least important KDSFs with a score of 3.14. The literature also discusses and proposes selecting the OSC methodology as a solution for overcoming construction project delays [20,46,49]. Gusmao Brissi et al [49] states that time is one of the most important factors influencing decisions regarding the use of OSC in multifamily housing in the US.…”