Sustainable and affordable prefab housing systems with minimal whole life energy use

Housing units of around 20 million need to be constructed in India by 2022. One key challenge for government and industry is high demand for sustainable and affordable housing. This paper introduces the results of an industry focus group meeting with Indian Concrete Institute (ICI) and industrial associates, regarding needs for housing construction, novel products design and service life increase. Results show that present design methods for buildings and structures in India need improvement, from a whole life energy use perspective at a material and system level, service life improvement and real monitoring of buildings and structures. More than 50% of respondents are not happy with the existing buildings design codes as they do not help on energy use minimisation. Materials inefficiency in design, disconnection with real operational use and lack of durability tend to increase with high construction speed. It is highlighted that many of the technologies are not proven in local environments which is inhibiting their use, including reusing of blended ashes from agro-industry waste. Almost 240 million tonnes of CO2 eq are emitted per year by Indian agricultural industry, which justify their re-use. Precast components are highlighted as a suitable solution in modular housing construction. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.