الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Prefabricated construction techniques have lately attracted housing builders’ attention around the world due to their sustainable performance in building housing. However, this doesn’t mean that it is a successful strategy in all countries. In Egypt, there isn’t any clear vision about the performance of using prefabricated construction methods in building housing. This study aimed to examine the decision to adopt prefabricated construction methods for building Egyptian housing. To achieve the aim of the study, two questionnaires were conducted targeting Egyptian housing construction practitioners. Through questionnaires, twenty-eight performance criteria under economic, social, environmental, and technical categories were developed to evaluate the performance of using prefabricated and the traditional on-site frame construction methods in building Egyptian housing. The multi criteria decision-making approach based on order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution technique (TOPSIS) and the Importance Performance Analysis tool (IPA) were used finally to contextualize the final findings. The results revealed that prefabricated construction methods can introduce a good level of performance in building Egyptian housing versus the traditional on-site frame construction methods. Although construction cost and affordability are important performance criteria for Egyptian housing, they were found to be weaknesses for both the construction methods. The main reasons hindering the adoption of prefabricated construction methods for Egyptian housing construction are back to the strategic level of criteria including; the lack of building practitioners’ experience and knowledge, the lack of customers’ awareness of these systems, and the lack of standardization. Improving these parameters can significantly improve the overall performance of prefabricated construction methods. Introducing prefabricated methods as a competitor to the traditional on-site frame construction methods can help to improve the Egyptian housing construction sector. This study contributed to providing a guide reference for the performance of using prefabrication in building Egyptian housing and the application of the MCDM approach in construction researches. |