Prefabricated Building of the Whole House

Prefabricated building of the whole house generally refers to modular construction or prefabricated assembled construction, which achieves efficient construction through factory-prefabricated components and on-site assembly, offering advantages such as short construction periods, high quality, and environmental protection and energy efficiency, but facing challenges in transportation and design flexibility.

Construction Modes

Prefabricated building of the whole house can be divided into two core modes:

1. Modular Construction: The house is divided into independent modules (such as ceilings, floors, and walls), with integrated water and electricity pipelines and interior decoration. These modules are prefabricated on factory assembly lines and then transported to the site for assembly. For example, the Shenzhen affordable housing project used 6,028 concrete modules, with a 70-square-meter unit assembled from two half-modules, significantly improving construction efficiency.
2. Prefabricated Assembled Construction: This includes various types such as panel, box, and frame structures, with components including beams, slabs, walls, and columns, which are industrially produced and then assembled on-site. For example, Vanke's developed prefabricated shear wall system has been applied in residential projects.

Technical Advantages

1. Shortened Construction Period: The construction period of modular construction is reduced by more than 60% compared to traditional construction. The Shenzhen affordable housing project compressed the completion and delivery time from 2.5-3 years to 1 year through modular technology.
2. Quality Control: Each module is equipped with an 'ID card' (including project name, model, production date, etc.), with steel bar positioning errors controlled to the millimeter level, ensuring the stability of building quality.
3. Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency: Parallel operations in factories reduce on-site noise, dust, and construction waste. Data from the Fujian industrial base shows that modular construction reduces construction waste by more than 70%, aligning with green building trends.
4. Cost Optimization: On-site labor is reduced by about 50%, and construction is not affected by weather conditions, significantly reducing overall costs.

Application Scenarios

It has been widely applied domestically in residential, affordable housing, factory buildings, and other fields, such as Vanke's prefabricated shear wall residential system. Overseas markets have seen significant growth, with Guangzhou Customs reporting exports of portable houses worth 1.4 billion yuan in the first four months of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 38.1%, reflecting expanding international demand.

Technical Challenges

1. High Requirements for Support Systems: It requires coordination among technology, production, and industrial clusters, with transportation and lifting equipment needing to meet the handling requirements of large modules (such as box-type prefabricated structures).
2. Limited Design Flexibility: Standardized production may limit personalized design, but this can be partially alleviated through the flexible combination of modular interfaces (such as assembling different unit types).

As an advanced form of prefabricated assembled construction, modular construction is driving the construction industry towards industrialization, with the global market size expected to exceed 142.8 billion US dollars by 2030.