BIM-Based Incremental Cost Analysis Method of Prefabricated Buildings in China

In order to achieve the sustainable growth of its urbanization and natural resources, China has been making great efforts to develop prefabricated construction technologies. However, the high incremental cost of prefabricated buildings (PRBs) is a fundamental obstacle to the latter. The current study mainly focuses on analyzing the incremental cost of the on-site construction stage. It is hard to comprehensively identify the incremental cost composition without considering the incremental cost caused by prefabricated components (PFCs) production. Moreover, the results of incremental cost calculation are not accurate enough by comparing the cost of two similar but different PRB and traditional buildings (TRB), and the case-based calculation results suffer from a lack of representation. To address these issues, we first establish a two-dimensional incremental cost index system from the dimension of cost items and prefabricated technologies to study the incremental cost composition of the whole construction stage. Additionally, based on China’s latest policies documents, the applicability of incremental cost composition items can also be improved. Then a building information modeling (BIM)-based calculation model is presented to avoid the calculation error caused by comparing the cost of two different PRBs and TRBs. To validate the proposed index system and calculation method, an actual prefabricated project in China is also conducted as a case study. The results suggest that: (1) Incremental cost is composed of band bearing and retaining walls and inner walls PFCs production, PFCs hoisting and grouting, post-pouring concrete, and full decoration. (2) The BIM-based incremental calculation result of a PRB case from Shanghai is within the range of the national average PRB incremental estimation results. The incremental cost composition items and BIM-based calculation approach can greatly help investors to identify the largest increase in cost and make effective cost optimization strategies.