Research on the Barrier Analysis and Strength Measurement of a Prefabricated Building Design

• Published in: Sustainability Vol. 12; no. 7; p. 2994
• Main Authors: Yuan, Zhenmin, Ni, Guodong, Wang, Linxiu, Qiao, Yaning, Sun, Chengshuang, Xu, Na, Wang, Wenshun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.04.2020
• Subjects: Architecture; Building construction; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Design; Experts; Grounded theory; Methods; Prefabricated buildings; Qualitative research; Research methodology; Subject specialists; Theory; China
• ISSN: 2071-1050; 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su12072994

As a sustainable and cleaner type of facility, prefabricated buildings face more design barriers than traditional non-prefabricated buildings. Identifying and managing these barriers is key to improving the success rate of prefabricated building design. However, direct studies on these design barriers are extremely rare. The present study solved this problem by combining multiple methods, including grounded theory (GT), structured self-intersection matrix (SSIM), analytic network process (ANP), and the linear weighted sum method (LWSM). GT was adopted to identify the barriers to prefabricated building design and then SSIM was used to analyze the interactions among them. The eight design barriers were finally identified and classified into three clusters: technical barriers, economic barriers, and management barriers. A further analysis found that there is dependence and feedback among these clusters. The technical barrier cluster and management barrier cluster experience self-feedback. A network model based on ANP was next established to calculate the weights of the barrier elements and then this model was combined with LWSM to evaluate the overall design barrier strength of a project case. The results showed that architectural individualization has the greatest impact on prefabricated building design, followed by the collaborative issues among multiple units and professional designer issues. The overall design barrier strength of the project case was larger. Therefore, the first suggestion provided to the facility management sector is to establish a library for standard house types to achieve architectural design through multihouse combinations.