Evaluating Offsite Technologies for Affordable Housing

Availability of an attribute-based evaluation and selection system for offsite technologies is crucial for the adoption of these technologies in mass housing projects. Due to this gap, adoption of offsite technologies remains low in the Indian construction industry in spite of a huge requirement of 18.78 million housing units to be built by 2022. The traditional ‘sticks and bricks’ approach is not likely to fulfil this demand. Adoption of offsite technologies has to be looked into as an option to deliver the extensive requirement in the area of affordable housing. Rejection of technology by evaluating the first cost alone is not the desired strategy to evaluate these offsite technologies. To evaluate and adopt these offsite technologies in affordable housing segment, a holistic selection framework encompassing a set of attributes is needed. This paper identifies a holistic selection framework with a set of offsite specific attributes alongside a set of standard attributes that are mandatory and desired for the adoption of offsite technologies in the affordable housing. Simple scoring of attributes is utilized in devising the framework. This framework is tested and validated on a case study where offsite technologies are used

A Multi-dimensional Subcontractor Evaluation Framework for Nonconventional Housing Systems

For any building construction project, it is crucial at the outset to select an appropriate subcontractor to achieve the objectives in terms of affordability and quality. But selection of a competent subcontractor becomes even more important when it comes to housing-construction with non-conventional materials and technologies, as their implementation requires unique skills and proficiencies. In the first phase of this research, the subcontractor selection attributes were identified. Apart from literature review, divergent stakeholders of Indian real-estate value-chain were also surveyed for identification of subcontractor selection attributes. While some of the identified attributes are generic, others are specific towards selection of subcontractors for building construction with new materials and technologies. However, the identified attributes can be broadly classified into five categories: “technical experience”, “financial competency”, “resource adequacy”, “job quality and safety” and “local and other factors”. In the next phase of the research, a multidimensional framework was developed using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for evaluation of subcontractors based on the identified attributes. The developed framework can also be used as a decision making protocol for selection of subcontractors for non-conventional building construction. The developed framework was validated by implementing it for subcontractor selection in a residential project site where emerging construction technologies were being implemented

Implementation of Precast Technology in India–Opportunities and Challenges

Rapid economic growth and limited availability of affordable land have restricted the horizontal mode of construction leading to vertical construction in most of the Indian cities. Urban India is mostly marked by tall buildings that are being built. Due to the economic slowdown and some governmental interventions, these building projects are seeing significant time and cost overrun, ultimately impacting the end-user. As these market pressures rise more and more, real estate developers are considering to adopt emerging technologies to compensate for these construction issues. Indian construction industry is undergoing a paradigm shift from traditional methods of construction to modern methods of construction. Precast technology is one such move which is expected to enhance the productivity of the construction process, thereby, optimizing the requirement of resources on the site, reducing waste generation and resulting in a faster delivery of the projects. While internationally precast technology is considered as a mature technology, in India, it is not widely utilized, despite the advantages. Commonly cited constraints are high costs in comparison to traditional construction, economies of scale, logistics, skill level required, end user friendliness, etc. Primarily, this study focusses on identifying the challenges faced by the precast technology under various categories. This study also presents a cost analysis model for precast technology versus traditional construction to address some of the challenges. Presented cost model is applied to two projects wherein precast technology and conventional technology are utilized to construct the project and an inference is drawn comparing the time and cost aspects of precast technology. Amicable solutions are proposed for adoption of precast construction from an Indian perspective