Title: Does concrete modular system add value in residential buildings? - Case study and qualitative evaluation

Authors: Jason Lim; Muhammad Nurul Afla; Elia Oey

Addresses: Civil Engineering Department, Pradita University, Tangerang, Indonesia ' Civil Engineering Department, Pradita University, Tangerang, Indonesia ' International Business and Management Program, Management Department, Binus Business School Undergraduate Program, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta 11480, Indonesia

Abstract: The concept of modularity has been widely accepted in production environment. However, its adoption in the construction sector is still limited. The research aims to address what are the main (sub) challenges in adopting concrete modularity concept in residential housing. The study collected possible challenges from previous studies, and asked expert respondents to perform AHP-pair wise comparison. It also used parameters from two case projects of a two-storey housing to examine the time and cost implications for modular concrete construction. The results shown the 'high upfront investment cost', 'lack of interest from consumers', 'no/lack of guidelines and regulation in design', 'lack of suppliers/products' and 'complexity to integrate with onsite structure' as the top five sub-challenges. From the project case 4% cost increase and 25% time saving can be expected from modular concrete adoption to a two-storey housing project.

Keywords: modular concrete; AHP; challenges; time saving; cost saving.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTRUCTE.2023.130162

International Journal of Structural Engineering, 2023 Vol.13 No.2, pp.259 - 277

Received: 16 Oct 2022
Accepted: 11 Dec 2022
Published online: 05 Apr 2023 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article