Prefabricated Housing Construction Around the World
Prefabricated housing construction around the world showcases unique characteristics, with China and Italy being prominent representatives.
China's 'prefabricated houses' (modular construction) have developed rapidly and achieved remarkable results. China breaks down buildings into independent unit modules, which are prefabricated in factories and then transported to the site for assembly. Taking a public housing project in Shenzhen, Guangdong, as an example, five residential buildings nearly 100 meters high were assembled from 6,028 concrete modules. This construction method offers numerous advantages. Compared to traditional construction methods, the project's completion and delivery time was reduced from 2.5 to 3 years to just 1 year, significantly shortening the construction cycle and enabling faster satisfaction of housing demands, especially in public housing and other livelihood projects, allowing residents to move into new homes sooner. At the same time, on-site labor was reduced by approximately 50%, which not only lowered labor costs but also decreased the complexity and management difficulty of on-site construction, improving construction efficiency. Moreover, modular buildings, being prefabricated in factories, allow for better control of construction quality, ensuring the precision and quality standards of each module and reducing quality issues caused by on-site construction environments and other factors.
Italy also has a unique design philosophy in prefabricated housing construction. Italian architect Roberto Rossi designed a prefabricated house that fully considers environmental integration and energy utilization. It allows for diverse landscaping, meaning the prefabricated house can be designed to match different geographical locations and surrounding environments, enabling better integration into natural or urban settings and enhancing living comfort and aesthetics. Additionally, the prefabricated house can utilize solar panels, harnessing solar energy—a clean energy source—to power the house, reducing reliance on traditional energy sources, lowering energy consumption and carbon emissions, aligning with sustainable development concepts, and reflecting eco-friendly and energy-saving design ideas.
