What Houses Belong to Prefabricated Panels

Prefabricated panel houses are buildings constructed primarily with prefabricated panels, while prefabricated concrete floor buildings are residential structures that use prefabricated concrete floor slabs as the main components of the floor. The following introduces the types of houses that belong to prefabricated panels from different aspects:

By Construction Era and Common Types

A significant portion of urban residential buildings constructed from the 1970s to the 1990s are prefabricated panel houses. During this period, due to factors such as construction technology and material supply, prefabricated panels were widely used in residential construction because they could be prefabricated in factories and assembled on-site, improving construction efficiency and shortening construction periods. The floor slabs, some walls, or other components of these houses were prefabricated in factories and then transported to the construction site for assembly. The walls were mostly brick or prefabricated concrete wall panels, and the structural form was mainly brick-concrete structures. For example, many multi-story residential buildings in older neighborhoods were constructed using prefabricated panels.

By Type of Prefabricated Panel

• Solid Prefabricated Panel Houses: Solid prefabricated panels are made by nailing wooden models, laying steel bars inside the models, and then pouring cement to form them. These solid prefabricated panels have high strength and load-bearing capacity and are used in buildings with high structural strength requirements, such as some early industrial plant ancillary residences, which may use solid prefabricated panels as floor slabs and other components.
• Hollow Prefabricated Panel Houses: Hollow prefabricated panels are also prefabricated in factories and have regularly distributed holes inside. This design reduces the weight of the prefabricated panels themselves while ensuring a certain level of strength, facilitating transportation and installation, and also saving materials. They are widely used in residential construction, with many ordinary multi-story residential buildings using hollow prefabricated panels as floor components.

By Building Structural Form

Prefabricated panel houses with brick-concrete structures are relatively common. In brick-concrete structures, the walls bear the main vertical loads, while the prefabricated panels serve as floor components, transferring the floor loads to the walls. This structural form was widely adopted in residential construction at that time because it combined the stability of brick walls with the convenience of prefabricated panel construction. However, with the development of construction technology, newly built residences now more commonly use frame structures, shear wall structures, etc., and the use of prefabricated panels has gradually decreased.