A SWOT analysis for promoting off-site construction under the backdrop of China’s new urbanisation

Abstract

Off-site construction refers to a new building approach which moves the building process away from the physical site but into a controlled factory environment. There are numerous and significant benefits derived from the increased global adoption of off-site construction. In China, however, it is identified that a number of transferable driving factors have not been present, for example, strategic roadmaps, appropriate policies and sufficient workable guidelines. To investigate into the China’s off-site construction status quo under the backdrop of China’s new urbanisation, this study conducts an exhaustive review of the literature towards a total of 107 papers and 85 governmental documents published during the past three years, along with semi-structured interviews to a number of experienced stakeholders. According to the information acquired from the literature review and the interviews, this paper sets forth a scientific process of carrying out a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis, from which the advantages and barriers of implementing off-site construction in China are analysed. Last but not least, the body of knowledge that the state-of-the-art research works have seldom addressed are complemented, namely, top-to-bottom implementation roadmaps and strategies that could significantly contextualise the China’s National New Urbanisation Plan 2014–2020 and help the Chinese construction sector to improve its competency.