A Framework for Comparative Evaluation of the Life Cycle Sustainability of Modular and Conventional Buildings

Abstract

In recent decades, the construction industry has experienced the process of industrialization and off-site construction methods have been used as a substitute for their conventional on-site counterparts. Off-site construction is defined as a process, in which building elements and components are manufactured and preassembled off the construction site, in a factory environment, before their installation on the final project location. Modular construction is one of the main methods of off-site construction that can be applied to diverse types of buildings, ranging from a small residential building to a complicated commercial project. The published technical literature indicates that modular buildings offer numerous benefits that can effectively contribute to the sustainability in construction. However, there is a lack of comparative studies, which comparatively analyzed the life cycle sustainability performance of modular and conventional buildings. This paper proposes a life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) framework based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which is one of the multicriteria decision making (MCDM) techniques. This framework evaluates and compares the life cycle sustainability of modular and conventional buildings by addressing all the key sustainability dimensions, i.e., environmental, economic, and social. Different components of the proposed framework and the potential outcomes of its application are presented in this paper.