Prefabrication and Industrialization of Domestic Structures: ARCH5705

This presentation explores the concept of prefabrication and industrialization within the context of domestic structures, with a particular focus on the UK construction industry. It begins by defining prefabrication and its advantages, such as faster construction, enhanced safety, and resistance to fire and seismic activity. The research methodology employed, including positivism and quantitative approaches, is outlined. The findings highlight the division of building construction into key parts, and how prefabrication can be implemented to improve labor utilization, material management, and production quality. The presentation also addresses the challenges faced by prefabrication in the UK, including limitations in design flexibility and the perception of high costs. Data collection methods, including interviews and questionnaires, are mentioned, and the objectives of the study are presented, including highlighting underlying construction issues, the benefits and disadvantages of prefabrication, and factors hindering its development in the UK.

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Introduction
Objectives
Research findings
Methods
References
The process of prefabrication involves preassembly, manufacture of the
individual unit and modules. In comparison to the on-site fabrication of the
modules and units, the process of “offsite fabrication” takes into consideration
the dual process of construction to the final installation(Bailey, 2016) This is
crucial and beneficial for the reason that it leaves the opportunity to
manufacture the building units even in critical weather conditions. The process
of prefabrication stared in 1960’s which not only enabled the process of
building units at a low cost, it is equally beneficial for the development of low
labor cost throughout the process (Alonso-Zandari et al., 2016). There are
number of advantages of the process of prefabrication for example, this helps to
the effective utilization of labor, materials and the technical skills (Bailey,
2016).
•Process of construction is faster in case of prefabrication than the traditional
technique of domestic construction.
•Domestic construction is safes in this case as this has been observed that these
buildings are safer in case of seismic waves which are an added advantage for
the housing industries. Severe seismic leadings have not been able to destroy the
precasted concrete since it has been resistant top the severe weather conditions.
•It is resistant to fire which that reduces the extra cost that helps to provide extra
care and reduces the future costs.
•Precast concrete is light and versatile in nature.
•It is expected to highlight the underlying issues of the construction
issues within the context of UK.
•This study will also be focusing on the benefits of prefabrication and
their respective disadvantage sin case of domestic construction.
•This will be highlighting the factors that hassled to the
underdevelopment of prefabrication in UK.
• For the purpose of research, there are three prominent research approaches which are
considered. The three approaches are interpretivism, positivism and realism (Flick,
2015). For this study, this paper will be adopting the positivism approach since it is
helpful to derive the scientific knowledge of the topic of study. This paper will be
undertaking the quantitative research approach as it is easier to derive the objective
information for the purpose of study.
•For the purpose of data collection, this study will be adopting the two basis
approaches of data collection in scientific research. For collecting the primary data,
this paper will depend on the quantitative data sources like personal interviews and
focus groups (Kumar, 2019). This is to be substantiated by the process of questionnaire
which will be focusing on preparing number of questions to have better insight on the
issue of prefabrication and it’s feasibility.
Pre-fabrication And Industrialization Of Domestic Structure
This has been observed that the process of building construction can be
divided into four prominent parts, the substructure, frame, envelope and
internal works (Killian et al., 2015). This process can again be subdivided
into multiple parts for the purpose of making it feasible and easier. This
has been one of the aspects where the idea of prefabrication can be
implemented. It is also crucial to remember that all types of construction
have different priorities where off site construction can come into help.
This will be helpful in using skill of labour in more productive way and
materials can be utilized under controlled condition. This leads to the
process of high grade production (Killian et al., 2015). Moreover it is also
crucial to consider that on an average of 10% of cost savings with 5 %
reduction of re-work. This also helps in increased safety and reduces
hazards upto 16% (Heffernan et al., 2015).
. This has been highlighted by the previous researches that the total
number of housing in UK in the year of 2016 has increased to the extent of
250000 (Elmualim et al., 2016). However what is glaring to note here is
that it this growing number of domestic structure is posing constant
challenge to the construction supply chain. This is further escalated by the
process of dimishing labour force, increased performance demand and lack
of supplementary methods of construction.
The building industry of UK is based on the traditional techniques whereas
the off-site fabrication has received a great deal of attention. in addition to
these barriers, it has also been found that limited design flexibility and
steep perceived cost of the prefabricated housing has been limiting the
scope of introduction of this new system of housing in the context of UK.
Furthermore the fear of change is the key factors that are restricting the
smooth shift of process towards the new system.
Alonso-Zandari, S., & Hashemi, A. (2016). Prefabrication in the UK housing construction industry. In 5th International Conference on Zero
Energy Mass Customised Housing-ZEMCH (pp. 347-360).
Arif, M., Killian, P., Goulding, J., Wood, G., & Kaushik, A. (2017). Barriers and Challenges for Offsite Construction in UK Housing Sector.
Bailey, D. (2016). A performance evaluation of mainstream timber framed and traditional masonry housing in the UK(Doctoral dissertation,
University of Nottingham).
Elmualim, A., Mostafa, S., Chileshe, N., & Rameezdeen, R. (2018). Construction and the Circular Economy: Smart and Industrialised
Prefabrication. In Unmaking Waste in Production and Consumption: Towards the Circular Economy(pp. 323-336). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Fenner, A. E., Razkenari, M., Hakim, H., & Kibert, C. J. (2017, December). A review of prefabrication benefits for sustainable and resilient
coastal areas. In Proceedings of the 6th International Network of Tropical Architecture Conference, Tropical Storms as a Setting for Adaptive
Development and Architecture, Gainesville, FL, USA (pp. 1-3).
Flick, U. (2015). Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research project. Sage.
Heffernan, E., Pan, W., Liang, X., & De Wilde, P. (2015). Zero carbon homes: Perceptions from the UK construction industry. Energy policy, 79,
23-36.