Abstract
Off-site construction has been increasingly employed due to its advantages, for instance, improved quality control, reduced skills labour, faster construction time, decreased material wastage and safe working environment. As the most cutting-edge off-site construction, modular buildings have been utilised for residential building, student accommodation, and hotel projects. However, because of existing and underlying constraints, the adoption of modular buildings is still relatively low. To reveal factors hindering the development of high-rise modular buildings, a comprehensive literature review, coupled with a focus group study, were conducted. A questionnaire survey inquiring about all stakeholders was implemented to quantify constraints. The results were further examined according to a real-life case study. This paper manifested that “Lack of coordination and communication among stakeholders”, “Higher cost”, “Lack of government support”, “Lack of experience and expertise”, “Lack of building codes and standards”, “Poor supply chain integration”, and “Complexity of connection” are the top barriers curbing the uptake of modular buildings. The findings should provide a valuable reference for stakeholders adopting modular buildings, whilst mitigating risks amid modular construction. Future research is expected to exploit building information modelling and design for manufacture and assembly to alleviate these existing constraints and promote the performance of modular construction as well.
Highlights
To bridge the gap between the capacity of housing supply and the explosion of housing demand in connection to rapid urbanisation, the construction industry has been seeking innovative materials and technologies that can provide more high-quality housing using less construction time
This work follows a four-step research process including multiple research methods, as shown in Figure 1: (1) identifying factors to create a preliminary list of constraints that hamper the development of high-rise modular buildings using a literature review, (2) refining factors of the preliminary list to achieve the final list of constraints through a focus group study, (3) analysing the result of the questionnaire survey to determine domain constraints in modular construction, (4) discussing the constraints with experts based on a real-life case study to seek solutions to the development of modular buildings
The final list of constraints impeding the development and progress of high-rise modular buildings was delivered to a large number of academic researchers and participants in modular construction who have adequate experience and knowledge in a questionnaire survey to rank these factors
Summary
To bridge the gap between the capacity of housing supply and the explosion of housing demand in connection to rapid urbanisation, the construction industry has been seeking innovative materials and technologies that can provide more high-quality housing using less construction time. Within this context, off-site construction has been acknowledged worldwide to play a key role in providing housing with enhanced quality, productivity, safety and efficiency [1,2,3].
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