InfraTech Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering
Quantification of the contribution of low-weight demountable and modular construction to the sustainable level of buildings
Abstract
Luis De Garrido
This study, for the first time, provides a quantitative assessment of the contribution of low-weight, demountable and modular construction systems to the sustainability level of a building through the application of 11 of the most representative and internationally implemented Green Building Rating Systems (GBRS).
The sustainability scores achieved by a prefabricated, demountable, and modular residential building (R4House) were systematically compared with those obtained by a conventional non-demountable building, which was used as a baseline reference. In both cases, the evaluation was conducted using the same set of 11 major and widely recognized GBRS. The results demonstrate that all of the analyzed rating systems identify a higher level of sustainability associated with demountable and modular construction. However, the magnitude of the improvement varies substantially across the different GBRS, with increases ranging from 1.4% to 17.41%. Only three of the rating systems clearly recognize and reflect the evident advantages of demountable and modular construction, whereas the remaining systems assign these construction approaches a relatively low weight. Furthermore, four of the GBRS scarcely acknowledge their benefits, despite the significant environmental advantages inherent to low-weight, prefabricated, modular, and demountable construction systems.
The outcomes of this study can be considered generalizable, as they indicate that existing GBRS frameworks lack sufficient sensitivity to detect and properly evaluate small-scale variations associated with low-weight demontable and modular construction. Nevertheless, further research of a similar nature is required to corroborate the findings and to accurately quantify the contribution of demountable and modular construction to the overall sustainability performance of buildings.