Steel Construction, 35( 2) , 66- 73( 2020)

DOI:10. 13206 / j. gjgSE20010802

ISSN 2096- 6865
CN10- 1609 / TF

Steel Modular Construction and Its Applicability

to the Building Industry in China
Tharaka Gunawardena ∗ and Priyan Mendis

( Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia)

Abstract:

Modular construction is an advancement from various prefabricated technologies that existed for decades in the
construction industry and is a platform to integrate such technologies into providing a more holistic solution. Due
to the rapid speed of construction and minimised work on-site, modular construction is becoming a more popular
method in the modern construction industry. Steel as a material is quite heavily used in modular structures as it
provides a more capable option in designing versatile structures that are both easy to install, relatively lighter
modules and suitable for disassembly. While the steel industry continues to grow rapidly in China, its use in
modern construction technologies such as modular construction would result in great benefits both locally and
internationally.

Key words: offsite manufacturing; volumetric construction; multi-storey buildings; steel industry in China

1　 Introduction

Prefabrication and modularisation have both been a part of construction for many years in various forms. Dry
wall systems, structural insulated panels ( SIP) , roof trusses, prestressed concrete beams, rebar cages etc. and
modularised furniture, plumbing systems etc. are such examples. Steel buildings on the other hand have always
been inherently prefabricated to a great extent since all steel members are cast in factories to specific sizes and
shapes and also cut to required sizes and assembled with pre-engineered connections. Steel is also useful in pro-
ducing fast fabricated floor and ceiling frames and light-weight partition wall frames. The demand to complete
building projects within a short time period while continuing to improve the quality of the output has become a
critical performance criterion in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction ( AEC) industry in recent times.
The concept of prefabricated modular structures has come to light as an effective solution for the AEC industry to
achieve both rapid construction as well as superior quality of the final product.
A modular building by definition, is where an entire building is assembled onsite from self-sustained modular
units that are complete with services and finishes and mass-produced in a factory prior to being transported to
site. Most manufacturers will nowadays cater for any architectural design with modular units of innovative geom-
etries and connection systems. Such building modules are mass produced in factories where the large labour force
which would have otherwise been required at a conventional building site is replaced with specialist workmanship
and automated manufacturing in a production facility.
As more innovative and unconventional designs are generated through modern architecture, prefabricated mod-
ules with different shapes and sizes will be demanded. A building designer is free to lay out a building in the con-
ventional manner to suit a client’ s desire and the requirements of the market. The building would then be adjus-
ted and divided into units that are in width and length suitable for transportation and lifting into position by a
crane on site. However, in practice, an Architect’ s prior experience in modular construction has paid great divi-
∗
Corresponding author
Email:tgu@ unimelb. edu. au
Received January 8, 2019
Accepted February 4, 2020

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dends in achieving a more effective and collaborative design process.

Fig. 1 highlights the main two benefits of volumetric ( modular) construction in the form of reduced labour and
construction time compared to other conventional and modern methods of construction. Some of the other benefits
and features of prefabricated modular construction are as follows.

Fig. 1　 On-site labour requirement and construction duration of volumetric ( modular) construction
compared to other types of construction [ 1] ( National Audit Office, UK, 2005)

1) The modules can incorporate all components of a building including stairs, lift shafts, facades, corridors and
services.
2) The modules are mass produced in a quality-controlled production facility. A unit ’ s length, width and
height may vary from project to project and are limited by factors related to transportation and lifting and handling
onsite.
3) There is minimal labour requirement onsite to complete the buildings as the façade and interiors themselves
could form parts of the modules. This enables the construction process to move away from being a labour-orien-
ted operation to a more process-oriented manufacturing and assembly process allowing building sites to achieve
reduced congestion and pollution.
4 ) The modules are able to be removed from the main structure for future reuse or relocation. The reusability of
prefabricated modules adds a large impact on modular buildings having a much lower life cycle energy [ 2] .
5) Enables construction to start earlier than usual, as modules can be fabricated in the factory while onsite prep-
aration and foundations works are still underway.
6) Modular construction at present reduces construction time by over 50% from a site-intensive building [ 3] .
This ensures that the client of the project starts generating revenue much earlier and invests in the opportunity
costs of having a different construction technology in earning further income.
7) The construction process is less vulnerable to bad weather which will make the construction even faster.
China’ s steel production has grown rapidly since the introduction of market-based reforms in 1978 [ 4] and has
reached a growth rate of nearly 20% by the 2000s. This has remarkably assisted the construction industry in Chi-
na to mature quickly and adopt new technologies such as modular construction in large volumes. This article aims
to discuss how modular construction has been practiced in the global scale and how the steel industry and modular
builders in China have contributed to it in recent years.

2　 Modular steel buildings constructed across the world

2. 1　 Little Hero Building in Melbourne, Australia

The low-rise apartment building “ Little Hero” that finished construction in June, 2010 in Melbourne, Australia
is a great example of modular construction ( Fig. 2) . The building consists of 58 single-storey steel framed mod-
ules and 5 double-storey modules. The steel modular structure was tied laterally to a cast in-situ concrete core.
The 8 modular stories were assembled with finishes within 8 days and the building was constructed in a Mel-
bourne CBD ( Central Business District) site with a very narrow access road demonstrating many advantages of
modular construction. This is also a noteworthy construction as it is one of the earliest multi-storey modular
buildings in Australia.

2. 2　 La Trobe Tower in Melbourne, Australia

This is a 44 storey construction ( Fig. 3) in the Melbourne CBD that consists of residential apartments. With a
height of 133 meters, this is currently one of the tallest modular buildings in the world. The project has taken 19
months until its completion in late 2016. This project has succeeded in carrying out entirely night-time construc-

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Fig. 2　 An image from the modular building “ Little Hero” in Melbourne, Australia after being occupied

tion to ensure minimal disturbance to the rest of the city.

Fig. 3　 La Trobe Tower in Melbourne, Australia [ 5]

More importantly, this project has used steel prefabricated modules to fit into a main structural frame that was
built as infill concrete walls. The reinforcement cages for these walls were designed as attachments to some of the
prefabricated modules where they were filled with concrete after onsite assembly.

2. 3　 Student Housing Building in Wolverhampton, UK

This 25 storey apartment building has been completed with only 27 weeks of onsite work. Lawson et al [ 6] ex-
plain that this has resulted in a 50 percent saving from the on-site construction time estimated for a conventional
site-intensive project. The productivity has been estimated in terms of savings in man-hours to an 80 percent im-
provement from a site-intensive construction.
Therefore, not only has modular technology proven time-efficient, but it has also proven to be more environ-
mentally friendly, providing energy-efficient solutions. As discussed by Lawson et al [ 3] , in general, prefabrica-
ted modular buildings have proven to reduce construction waste considerably and this is mainly through means of
minimised off-cuts [ 7] .

2. 4　 One9 Apartment Building in Melbourne, Australia

“ One9 Apartments” ( Fig. 4) is a ten storey modular building built in one of the inner suburbs of Melbourne,
Australia that consists of 34 apartments which are designed for energy efficiency and comfortable liveability.
The above ground modular floors were assembled on site in as few as five days and opened to users by Novem-

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Fig. 4　 One9 Apartments during construction [ 8]

ber, 2013. The site was constrained by a nearby large shopping mall which was strictly not to be disturbed.
Modular technology proved to be the most viable solution to cater for the client’ s need in constructing a ten sto-
rey building in only a few days which helped to save many costs that he would otherwise have foregone in deal-
ing with a challenging construction in a heavily congested suburb with a difficult set of constraints that limited the
work flow on site.
The “ One9 Apartments” development also has secured a 6-star rating from Green Star Australia for its many
features that demonstrate sustainable construction. Modular construction has proven its value in many avenues in
this project especially considering the fact that it was built in a land as small as 277 m 2 .
In addition to many examples where modular structures have been used for commercial use, they have also
been quite a productive solution for post disaster relief operations. Some post disaster housing reconstruction pro-
grammes where prefabricated modules were used are discussed below.

2. 5　 Post Katrina Housing in Mississippi, USA

Due to the large housing demand which followed the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005, extensive research has
gone into improving the previously used “ FEMA Trailers” and to implement modular construction for temporary
housing. A design by Architect. Marianne Cusato inspired these modular house type, which was named the
“ Katrina Cottage” . It was designed to be installed with a floor area of 27. 8 square metres. However this was im-
proved to incorporate a more permanent housing solution with 20 different cottage models that allowed for future
extensions [ 9] .

2. 6　 Reconstruction after Haiti Earthquake in 2010, Haiti

Following the Haiti earthquake in 2010, the Canadian Embassy in Haiti had carried out the installation of 46
modular housing units as temporary shelter for 75 individuals. This was however carried out as a temporary hous-
ing solution to serve for the immediate needs of disaster victims until more permanent housing solutions were ar-
ranged. However, Gunawardena et al. [ 10] explain how modular construction can serve better in providing perma-
nent housing much faster in post-disaster reconstruction operations.

3　 Steel modular construction in China

3. 1　 Steel modular building projects

Modular construction already has a pronounced presence in the vast construction market of China where various
types of building modules are produced for both local and overseas projects. Zhang et al. [ 11] explain how
China’ s construction industry has developed rapidly over the years and how the introduction of modular construc-
tion in many forms has assisted its growth in recent times.
Hong et al. [ 12] estimated the upstream costs of modular construction to be between 120 yuan / m 2 to 150 yuan /
2
m for building necessary facilities prior to fabricating modules and delivering to construction projects. However,
as per this study, it is foreseen that these costs will reduce with time as the construction industry matures with
prefabricated technologies.
In fact, more than for local buildings, Chinese modules are more used in overseas projects such as those in
UK, USA, Australia, many African countries and other nearby Asian countries. In this regard,CIMC is one of
the leading modular builders and exporters of China which has a worldwide presence and produces more than
5 000 modules in each of its four factories each year. One of their latest projects ( Fig. 5) which was completed

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in early 2019, was a student accommodation project in Newcastle, UK where six blocks of student accommoda-
tions of 4 to 9 stories were built using 789 modules.

Fig. 5　 The park view student accommodation village in Newcastle, UK built using 789 Chinese
modules and completed in 2019 [ 13]

This project was initially estimated to take more than three years to complete with traditional construction tech-
niques. However, it was completed using modular technology in approximately 2 years with a time saving of
more than 30% .
Fig. 6 shows a luxury hotel built in Yunnan, China in 2016 by the Chinese modular builder XCube. In this pro-
ject eight modules were installed with only a week of on-site work as the modules were nearly 100% complete
with all finishes and fit-outs.

Fig. 6　 A luxury hotel built in Yunnan, China in 2016 using steel modules [ 14]

As such, the modular builders of China have carried out many local and overseas projects in the past few years
and continues to deliver a large volume of modular products to various types of projects all over the world.

3. 2　 Steel industry of China

As discussed previously, steel as a material is quite necessary in developing effective modular solutions. In this
regard, having a strong local steel industry can be a great advantage, especially considering the financial savings
in transportation and taxes as well as other benefits such as reductions in embodied energy in manufactured mod-
ules. As shown in Fig. 7, the steel production in China has grown at a rapid rate in the past decade and has pro-
duced nearly 231 million tonnes in the quarter finishing in April, 2019 [ 15] .
In the global scale, China is a clear leader, as shown in Fig. 8, with a contribution of 49% to the global steel
production in 2018. As shown by the in the same figure, nearly half of this steel production is used in the con-
struction industry. Therefore, this strong steel industry can quite ably support the growth of a strong prefabricated
and modular construction industry. The large production volumes and the large demand in the housing and retail
markets simply due to the size of the population of China could result in great economies of scale.

4　 Structural systems used for steel modular buildings

Structural systems of modular buildings are developed using two main types of modules according to how they
carry and transfer loads, namely.

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Fig. 7　 Steel production output in China over a 10 year period from 2010 to 2019 [ 16]

Fig. 8　 Distribution of top steel producers and industries that use steel

1) Load-bearing modular systems → the perimeter wall structure of these modules carry adequate stiffness and
continuous connectivity to transfer their weight to the modules below and eventually to the foundation
( Fig. 9( a) ) . Their walls are stiffened with steel braces that contribute to resistance against racking actions that
are experienced during temporary scenarios such as moving and handling inside factories, loading and unloading
to and from trucks, during transportation and during onsite lifting and handling. This structural system is mostly
feasible for low-rise applications.

Fig. 9　 Two main types of modules

2) Corner-supported modular systems → corner columns in the module take up the floor loads and transfer them
to the columns below ( Fig. 9( b) ) . This system is also capable of resisting horizontal loads such as earthquake
and wind forces as long as the structural connections are designed adequately, thus ideal for multi-storey applica-
tions. In almost all modular buildings, a structural system such as this with columns and structural connections
are made from steel.
Most multi-storey modular buildings around the world can be found as assemblies of corner-supported modules
that are connected horizontally to a cast in-situ concrete core which eventually acts as the primary lateral load re-
sisting element. Further, in most instances, the floors are poured with concrete subsequent to placing the mod-
ules. Although these methods do still add value to the construction by saving construction time initially, they do
not define the structure as a purely modular construction. As a result, these structures do not fully enjoy the pre-
viously mentioned benefits of modular construction.
Gunawardena et al. [ 18] introduced a modified corner-supported structural system where an assembly of prefabri-
cated modules alone could be used to design a multi-storey building without a traditionally built core. This meth-
od would reward the client with the full set of benefits of modular construction. The elevator core in this system

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is intended to be formed with steel elements as a part of some of the prefabricated modules themselves and there-
fore will not be the central component in the lateral load resisting system. The prefabricated modules are stacked
vertically and connected horizontally through bolted plates. The lateral load transfer mechanism is provided
through these connections and improved greatly through the introduction of modules with stiff infill concrete
walls [ 5] . These stiff modules which are strategically placed in the main structure resist the majority of lateral
loads and transfer them down to the foundation. As a result the structure would not require a traditional central
structural core. The structure could then perform as a purely modular system.
This new system provides architects with a greater degree of freedom with a structure that is not limited by the
placement of a traditional core. The structural behaviour of this system was critically evaluated through recent re-
search [ 19] and since it is a corner-supported system its performance against lateral loads such as earthquake forces
is a key performance criterion. This research showed that the structure performs approximately in the “ Immediate
Occupancy” to “ Life Safety” zone as per the performance levels described in FEMA - 356 [ 20] . This is a valuable
preliminary estimate of the performance of this structural system against earthquakes actions.

5　 Concluding remarks

Modular construction provides designers, builders and developers with a means to realise challenging projects in
a short time with many other advantages included. Further, the newly introduced modified corner supported sys-
tem presents designers with many more attractive benefits including flexibility with arranging spaces without being
restricted by an in-situ unmovable core. The overall geometry, rigidity and weight of modules would need to sat-
isfy lifting, transportability and assembly criteria to make any prefabricated or modular structural system viable.
In achieving such necessities, steel as a material plays a vital role in producing versatile structural components.
The strong steel industry in China is quite capable of developing a local as well as international modular indus-
try dominance through volume and improved quality. The availability of raw materials and steel products in the
local market could effectively result in lower embodied energy and more sustainable building systems. The cur-
rent upward trend in the Chinese modular industry could be well supported by these factors.
Modular technology in the whole, has created a remarkable shift in modern construction from trying to make
on-site activities safer and more efficient in making efficient off-site manufacturing ( OSM) , prototyping and as-
sembly systems. This concept of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly ( DfMA) is enabling a rapid evolution
in the construction industry by creating better performing modular systems which will realise projects even faster
and generate better profit margins for builders and investors.
Where skilled labour is diminishing as a resource and also has an ageing workforce, it would be a very prudent
decision to invest in prefabrication and modular technologies, especially for builders in parts of the world such as
south and east Asia where construction has always been labour-intensive. Builders would also benefit from vari-
ous economies of scale by having a factory-oriented processes with minimum on-site costs. The reusability aspect
of steel structures adds another dimension into the value of availability and cost of materials. In addition to
speedy constructions, it will also create a more quality oriented construction practice and a safer working environ-
ment for well-trained building technicians.

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钢结构模块化施工及其在中国建筑业中的应用
Tharaka Gunawardena　 Priyan Mendis
( 墨尔本大学基础设施工程系, 墨尔本 VIC 3010,澳大利亚)

摘　 要:模块化施工是建筑行业几十年 来 各 种 预 制 技 术 的 进 步, 是 将 这 些 技 术 集 成 到 提 供 整 体 解 决 方 案 的 平 台。
由于施工速度快、现场工作量小,故模块化施工正成 为 现 代 建 筑 业 中 较 为 流 行 的 施 工 方 法。 钢 材 在 模 块 化 结 构 中
应用非常广泛,为设计多用途结构时提供了一种更为有效的选择。 这种结构既 易 于 安 装,模 块 相 对 较 轻,又 适 合 拆
卸。 在中国钢铁工业持续快速发展的同时,将钢材应用于模块化施工等现代建筑技术,将在国内外产生巨大效益。
关键词:场外制造;体量施工;多层建筑;中国钢铁工业

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