Prefabrication

What IS Prefabrication?

Benefits

Social

Benefit

Environmental Benefit

Economic

Benefit

1) Shorter Construction Duration

Factory-produced building components are built earlier in factories. Meanwhile, parallel actitivies can occur on-site. Significant time savings in assembly of various components on-site. Minimal disruption due to external variables such as weather as well.

2) Controlled Quality

More elaborate and better organization and inspection processes can used for prefabricated modules in the factory as opposed to at the construction site. Computer-assisted models allow the completed building to be visualised, enabling prediction of most factors that could affect the construction process.

3) Reducing Labour & Upgrading Employment

Fewer skilled workers needed on-site for assembly operations. Shortage of on-site labour is a huge problem affecting tradtional construction approaches, especially in remote locales. With aging populations and higher labour cost, semi-skilled workers can be hired to perform the same well-defined task at a lower cost, freeing the precious pool of skilled workers for more complex operations.

4) Productivity and Economies of Scale

Factory production allows for efficient mass production, allowing for quick response to market conditions. Mechnical process of factory production contributes to productivity gains. Increasing use of manufactured components from outside the traditional construction sector, increasing commercial competition. Bulk orders from a factory brings significant benefits as compared to one-off building orders

4) Other Economic Benefits

Faster construction times allow housing projects to be released into the market earlier, reduing financing costs. Factory produced components also have a longer shelf life, reduing maintenance & repair expenses.

1) Reduced Material & Construction Waste

Factory produced components are built with accuate cutting, aligning, screwing, nailing, painting and handling due to automated processes. This drastically reduces amount of material wastage. With less on-site plastering or timber works, on-site construction waste plummets.

2) Reduced On-Site Pollution

Less on-site activities and factory-finished interior works, there is less noise, dust and litter produced, resulting in better air quality for the households as compared to traditional construction methods.

3) Increased Use of Recycled Materials

Referred to as "Cradle to Cradle", a lean construction principle allows for solutions of reusing and recycling components and materials in building construction. This is as opposed to the traditional "Cradle to Grave" construction process.

4) Better Energy Efficiency

With less energy used in transporation and on-site works, energy consumption is reduced greatly. Most components and modules are pre-fabricated with economies of scale, reduing the energy per unit usage.

1) Reduced Accidents and Illnesses

With less exposure to noisy, dirty, polluted construction sites, construction workers face less accidents or suffer less illnesses. Factory production allows for improved safety and environmental efficiencies, and can be aided by compuer controlled autonomous mechanical operations for integrating, joining and assembling, reducing the worker's exposure to hazards.

2) Improved Job Conditions and Wage Levels

Most construction processes actually occuring away from the building site, in an arguably safer and more stable factory environment. With task specific semi-skilled and skilled labourer, their earning capacity stands to increase together with the productivity increases.

Prefabrication

A manufacturing process, generaly taking piace at a specialised facility in which various materials are joined to form a component part of a final installation

Preassembly

A process by which various materials, prefabricated components and/or equipment are joined together at a remote location for subsequent installation as a sub-unit

Module

A major section of a plant resultingfrom a series of remote assemblyoperations and may include many portions. It is isusually the largest transportable unit or component of a facility

Off- Site Prefabrication

The practice or preassembly or fabrication of components off-site and on-site at a location rather than the final installation location. Increasingly common to adopt the term 'IOP' which refers to 'industrialization, offsite manufacture and prefabrication

Examples of Prefabrication used in Building & Homes

Built in JUST 24 Hours! Homeshell—a prefabricated, flatpack home designed by Pritzker laureate Richard Rogers—was recently assembled in the courtyard of London’s Royal Academy. The three and a half storey building is the adaptation of the architect’s 2007 Oxley Woods housing development and was built to showcase a new, quicker, more energy-efficient, low-cost, disaster-proof way of building. Most impressively, the structure took just 24 hours to erect Click the picture to visit the page!	The 'organic house' ‘organic house' — a wood pre-fab prototype that was Youmeheshe's answer to design an affordable house for under £60,000. This bio-fueled, wood-clad house that “touches the ground lightly” has a design that uses a kit of parts – for example a level could be a whole floor or a loft depending on the size of the household – to assemble a house floor-by-floor. The highest models were a 4 room, 4 story house. Click the picture to visit the page!	Ma Modular Mansion! Offered at a base price of $150 per square foot, ma is “the promise of prefab fulfilled,” the company says. It’s available in two module sizes—36 feet by 15 feet and 60 feet by 15 feet—and has three available floor plans, which make up the six building blocks of the system. The modules can be linked in an unlimited variety of ways, including one- and two-story configurations, allowing future homeowners to customize to their specific needs and site. Click the picture to visit the page!
The CAS4 Design The modular system they created is based on galvanized steel frames, corrugated tin roofs. and hollow walls injected with polyurethane foam--much like one would find in a walk-in freezer--for insulation. As with all modular homes, the modules can be combined in endless variations. Their designs thus far run from a two module, 270 sq. ft. bedroom cabana designed for a rural lodge to a ten module house with three bedrooms. Click the picture to visit the page!	Home with an EcoHat? The homes’ most innovative feature is the “EcoHat,” a roofing system that allows hot air to rise and consequently be reused to provide passive solar water heating, thereby mitigating the energy consumption of the house. Clever floorplans optimize natural lighting schemes, while prefab modules and flat-pack components reduce waste and energy (these factors, when combined with the EcoHat, represent up to a 70% reduction in CO2 emissions). Click the picture to visit the page!