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Off-Site Construction of Concrete Housing in the Andean Region: Advantages and Disadvantages

Abstract:

The construction of prefabricated houses is a viable option to solve the problems of housing demand in the Andean region. The prefabricated concrete houses have been built in several countries in the region and will surely be developed in the future. Thinking about their constructability, information is required about this construction system, which is scarcely known by the main people involved in construction: governments, users and builders. The present work seeks to fill the knowledge gap on the production and assembly of prefabricated concrete housing (PFCH), as well as on its advantages and disadvantages. For this purpose, a search for providers of this type of housing was carried out in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru. Through an analysis of documentary information and interviews with the managers of the supplier companies, it was established that one of the main aspects in this construction system is the definition of the constituent elements of the house as this defines the need for equipment and hand of work for its assembly. The main advantage is the short execution time, while among the disadvantages is the poor adaptability of the designs. There are conflicting opinions as to whether its cost is an advantage. This research contributes to the constructability of PFCH in the Andean region, facilitating knowledge that can be integrated in the design and in the construction stage in order to improve the performance of the construction process.