Prefabricated building method in Sri Lanka and user attitude

Abstract

During the development of construction industry, people looked forward on building their houses by using less time and cost consuming methods. Prefabricated building methods were introduced as the outcome of this developmental process. In conventional building method, both total fabrication and erection were carried out in the site, which was a highly labour intensive work and also it was difficult to control the wastages and quality. In such rough working environment, labours refused working, where it became very difficult to arrange skill labours to these work sites. High scarcity of resources, daily rising cost of raw materials, controlling of wastage become much more important. Prefabricated building method grab considerable market share in developed countries like United States, Japan, china and United Kingdom. From early 1960s prefabricated housing projects were lunched in Sri Lanka. But this method could not grab significant market share in Housing industry of Sri Lanka. Prefabricated housing projects that previously carried out in various parts of Sri Lanka, selected as the case study and carried out user responsive survey and using personal observation prepare the conclusion and recommendations. Visiting the prefabricated model manufactures and analysis the pros and cons of their models and found out the reasons behind their models, why that those poorly attract the market. After analysis of all the information, found that major reasons for not grabbing considerable market share as that this prefabricated housing method did not considering the local customs and believes, local climatic conditions, lack of space and expandable ability within these housing units and poor marketing of model manufactures. Then considering these conclusion and prepare the recommendation as the guide line on launching of prefabricated housing projects, where these steps will give good opportunity to grab considerable market shear for prefabricated housing in housing industry.