Types of House Structures: Beyond Prefabricated Panels

In addition to prefabricated panel structures, common house structures also include slab-type building structures, brick-concrete structures, frame structures, and reinforced concrete shear wall structures. The following provides an explanation from three aspects: structural characteristics, application scenarios, and technical differences.

1. Slab-Type Building Structures
Slab-type building structures primarily use cast-in-place concrete or brick-concrete walls as the main load-bearing system and are commonly found in multi-story residential buildings. Their core feature is flexible spatial layout. Functional areas are divided through frames or shear walls, reducing the restrictions imposed by load-bearing walls on indoor space. For example, modern slab-type buildings often adopt large-span beam-slab systems, allowing free renovation of areas such as living rooms and bedrooms. Additionally, slab-type building structures enhance overall integrity through cast-in-place processes, offering superior seismic performance compared to traditional prefabricated panel structures, making them particularly suitable for earthquake-prone regions. In terms of construction methods, slab-type buildings require on-site formwork erection and concrete pouring, resulting in longer construction periods but higher structural stability.

2. Brick-Concrete Structures
Brick-concrete structures were a mainstream form coexisting with prefabricated panel structures before the 1990s, using brick walls as vertical load-bearing components and prefabricated or cast-in-place slabs as horizontal components. Their advantages lie in low material costs and simple construction processes, making them suitable for low-rise buildings (such as residential buildings with six stories or fewer). However, brick-concrete structures have weaker seismic performance, heavy wall self-weights, and high requirements for foundation bearing capacity. With the upgrading of building codes, brick-concrete structures have gradually been replaced by frame structures but are still used in some rural self-built houses.

3. Frame Structures
Frame structures were the mainstream seismic-resistant structures from the 1990s to 2010, forming a load-bearing skeleton through cast-in-place reinforced concrete columns and beams, with floor slabs that can be prefabricated or cast-in-place. Their core advantage is free spatial division, as loads are transferred solely through columns and beams, with almost no load-bearing walls indoors, making them suitable for large-space demand scenarios such as shopping malls and office buildings. Additionally, frame structures can achieve flexible adjustments in building height and span through reasonable design of column grid dimensions, with a design life of 70-100 years. However, frame structures have lower lateral stiffness and require shear walls or bracing systems to enhance lateral resistance.

4. Reinforced Concrete Shear Wall Structures
Reinforced concrete shear wall structures have been the mainstream form for high-rise buildings in the past decade, simultaneously bearing vertical and horizontal loads through cast-in-place reinforced concrete walls. Their characteristic is extremely strong lateral resistance, with shear walls arranged along the building perimeter to effectively resist wind loads and seismic actions, making them suitable for super high-rise residential or office buildings with 30 stories or more. Additionally, shear wall structures offer regular indoor space, but the wall thickness is relatively large (usually 200-300mm), which may occupy some usable area. In terms of construction processes, shear walls need to be poured simultaneously with floor slabs, imposing high requirements on the formwork support system.