Prefabricated Building Systems—Design and Construction

Abstract

Modern Methods of Construction with Offsite Manufacturing is an advancement from prefabricated technologies that existed for decades in the construction industry, and is a platform to integrate various disciplines into providing a more holistic solution. Due to the rapid speed of construction, reduced requirement of labour and minimised work on site, offsite manufacturing and prefabricated building systems are becoming more popular, and perhaps a necessity for the future of the global construction industry. The approach to the design and construction of prefab building systems demands a thorough understanding of their unique characteristics.

Assessment of Sustainability and Efficiency Metrics in Modern Methods of Construction: A Case Study Using a Life Cycle Assessment Approach

“…Timber, steel (light steel frame, containers, others) and concrete are the main materials adopted in prefabricated buildings, in which a component, a panel, a volume, a hybrid system, or a complete house can be prefabricated with them, within a plant, to be dispatched to the construction site [15]. The reversible connections for the assembly, e.g., between the panel system and the house's subsystems such as roofs and foundations, are critical for the housing performance [35] and define disassembling capacity that promotes building circularity [17].…”

“…In both houses, these materials are related to foundations and walls. The CH weight is 2.81 times the VH weight (see Table 2), which represents an advantage in the structural design of foundations, which is usually not considered a prefabricated component [11,35] and represents an important contribution to environmental impact due to the high energy demand, carbon emissions, and CDW related to it, especially when using concrete [11,92]. Congruently, Figure 12 shows that concrete contributes the highest proportion of EC for both CH and VH, at 46.9% and 26.6%, respectively, and Table 4 shows that building elements including concrete represent a higher contribution to construction waste.…”

“…Lighter structures are shown to be advantageous for the structural requirements of foundations, which are usually not considered precast and are still made of concrete [11,35]. Additionally, concrete shows high environmental impacts, both for EE and EC.…”

Bibliometric Review of Prefabricated and Modular Timber Construction from 1990 to 2023: Evolution, Trends, and Current Challenges

“…This technology can achieve a remarkable level of completion, reaching upwards of 95% before its transportation to the designated location [1]. While some researchers state that modular construction is constituted by a dimensionally unified spatial unit or a 3D volumetric section [3][4][5][6], others describe it in the form of 2D planar components (pre-assembled elements) or fully volumetric units [7][8][9]. From the viewpoint of these authors, modules can cover a diverse range of prefabricated elements or systems, including component groups and complete units of significant size and volume.…”

Climate Change Mitigation through Modular Construction

“…Comprehensive reviews have compiled numerous construction materials that are used in the preparation of prefabricated modules, such as wood, light gauge steel, and structural insulated panels, as opposed to traditional construction, which mainly relies on in situ concrete and heavy steel reinforcements for building components [27]. Similarly, regarding various management philosophies, Arashpour discussed employable management philosophies in MC projects since predictive project delivery methods, predominantly used in traditional construction, are not largely compatible with MC projects [28].…”