Abstract
In recent years, prefabricated housing has become increasingly popular and widely promoted due to its potential to improve the construction environment, quality and productivity. To develop prefabricated housing and address housing challenges, the Chinese government is encouraging prefabricated public housing. Consequently, evaluating the environmental performance of prefabricated public housing to identify whether it is environmentally friendly and worthy of investment is urgently needed. This paper compares the costs and benefits of prefabricated public projects and traditional projects based on a questionnaire and field investigation. The paper introduces information from the collected questionnaires on the respondents and projects in Beijing; this information includes the prefabrication rate, technology application, barriers, and industrial performance. The paper also reports a cost-benefit analysis of the changing rates of construction costs and environmental benefits (energy consumption, water usage, construction waste, steel and concrete usage, dust and noise pollution) by using the ∆B/∆C ratio to show the efficiency of prefabricated housing. The results indicate that the ratio is 1.81, which exceeds 1; therefore, investment in prefabricated public housing is environmentally acceptable and efficient. This paper also discusses the efficiencies in different categories and structures with and without incentives. The results show that the costs are higher and the environmental benefits are efficient but not significant; thus, promoting prefabricated public housing is necessary.
Highlights
With the rapid growth of the economy, issues such as income inequality, housing challenges, depletion of natural resources, and environmental pollution have arisen in China
More than 30 provinces have passed some related policies and supportive measures to reach those goals. These policies are various in different areas, public housing as a pilot project is an important measure to promote prefabricated technology due to the governmental support and enforcement, as well as its small apartment layouts and simple designs which is suitable for prefabricated construction
The specific contributions include the following: (1) a new cost-benefit analysis (CBA) framework is developed to improve the prefabricated construction environment while considering costs; (2) the empirical results indicate a relationship between construction costs and environmental benefits with first-hand quantitative and qualitative data; (3) this study examines policies and limitations, which is conducive to finding useful solutions for promoting prefabricated housing
Summary
With the rapid growth of the economy, issues such as income inequality, housing challenges, depletion of natural resources, and environmental pollution have arisen in China. To meet housing quantity and quality requirements, to reduce the labour costs [5,6] and to achieve industry transformation, the government is promoting prefabrication techniques in construction with great effort. China has set clear goals; for example, the Outlines for the Development of Construction Industrialisation states that prefabricated buildings should ideally represent 20% and 50% of new buildings by 2020 and 2025, respectively. More than 30 provinces have passed some related policies and supportive measures to reach those goals. These policies are various in different areas, public housing as a pilot project is an important measure to promote prefabricated technology due to the governmental support and enforcement, as well as its small apartment layouts and simple designs which is suitable for prefabricated construction
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
