Adoption of Pre-Fabricated Building Technology to Address Housing in Kigali City
Patrick Arinawe1, Abedenego O. Gwaya2, Stephen O. Diang’a3
1Patrick Arinawe, Bachelor of Urban Planning, Makerere University, (Master of Construction Project Management, (ongoing), JKUAT.
2Dr. Abednego Gwaya: B.A (Bldg. Econ.), U.O.N, MSc Civil Eng. Makerere, Ph.D (Const. Eng. & Mngt).JKUAT.
3Dr. Prof. Stephen O. Diang’a (PhD, Durban University). Housing & Urban Planning, Architecture.
Manuscript received on June 04, 2019. | Revised Manuscript received on June 10, 2019. | Manuscript published on June 15, 2019. | PP: 56-63 | Volume-5, Issue-12, June 2019. | Retrieval Number: L11320651219/19©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: The challenge of housing delivery is of great concern in many countries of the world. This problem is more predominant in developing countries and Rwanda is not an exception. Kigali City like most cities in developing countries is faced with housing shortage mainly caused by the growing urban population, high costs of construction and limited supply of dwelling units to meet the current demand. This study set out to examine if the adoption of prefabricated building technology can improve the delivery of affordable housing in Kigali City. Prefabs have in the past been advocated sustainable approach of reducing construction cost leading to affordable housing. The targeted study population consisted of Registered and practicing professionals( Engineers, Architects and Urban Planners , Manufacturers of prefabricated building materials( Strawtec and Afri-precast), Real estate developers, Staff at Rwanda Housing Authority , Ministry of Infrastructure , City of Kigali involved in housing supply and regulation and Home owners. The study objectives were to: assess the current interventions by government and private sector to increase supply housing in Kigali. Compare the cost effectiveness of using conventional and prefabricated building materials on housing projects in Kigali; Examine the perception of stakeholders towards the use and adoption of prefabricated building materials and finally suggest and recommend a framework for adopting prefabricated building materials on housing projects in Kigali City. The research design was cross – sectional study and it relied on both quantitative and qualitative. Both primary and secondary data were collected from developers, consultants and contractors through checklists, questionnaires, interviews and visual observations. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. They described functional performance, lessons learned, adoption rate, social and economic impacts of prefabs. The study revealed that the costs of the raw materials as high and hence making the adoption rate of the prefabricated building materials in Kigali City low. Additionally, the advantages of prefabs included savings on speed of construction, waste reduction, labor reduction, efficiency and quality production. These impacts are however not aggressively propagated or articulated to the general public. This lack of effective dissemination has led to constrained knowledge on the social and economic benefits of prefabs curtailing satisfactory solutions to affordable housing. Thus, the researcher recommends that the Sensitizing the public through open forums, printed pamphlets, show houses, physical demonstrations of construction speeds, active public participation and other promotion methods; of the many advantages of prefabs. These findings of the study should be applied in future projects as a way to promote adoption of the prefabricated building technology.
Keywords: Adoption, Prefabricated, Affordable housing, alternative building technology.