Source: Green Building Online
The Vanke Changyang Tiandi project is situated in Changyang Town, Fangshan District, Beijing. It comprises six high-rise buildings with 21 floors each, along with six smaller high-rise buildings of 11 floors. This project marks Vanke’s first residential development in Beijing utilizing industrialized construction methods. It features a fully prefabricated and assembled shear wall structure. Industrialized components include exterior walls, interior walls, floor slabs, balconies, air conditioning panels, stairs, and lightweight interior partitions. The project successfully integrates design standardization, factory production of components, on-site assembly, structural and decorative integration, and information management.
The Vanke Jinyu Tixiang project, also located in Changyang Town, Fangshan District, Beijing, includes buildings #7 through #9, which are industrialized residential buildings. Building #7 incorporates a foundation isolation system, and its prefabricated components include exterior walls, interior walls, floor slabs, balconies, air conditioning panels, stairs, and lightweight interior partitions. Buildings #8 and #9 feature prefabricated exterior walls, floor slabs, balconies, air conditioning panels, stairs, and lightweight interior partitions.
Both projects were designed by Beijing Residential Architecture Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd. During the design phase, three crucial factors ensured a smooth transition to industrialized construction: scientific disassembly of prefabricated components, standardization of connection node processing, and BIM collaboration.
Scientific Disassembly of Prefabricated Components
Architectural industrialization centers on production industrialization, which relies heavily on design standardization. A critical step is establishing adaptable modules and coordination principles. This approach optimizes the size and types of each functional module to achieve universality and interchangeability of building components. The result ensures the building attains optimal functionality, quality, technology, and economy during construction, facilitating a shift from extensive to intensive construction methods.
Standardization hinges on the scientific disassembly of components, which affects building functions, façades, structural stress, load-bearing capacity, and costs. Prefabricated buildings mainly consist of vertical components, horizontal components, and non-load-bearing components based on their function and structural forces:
- Vertical components: Primarily prefabricated shear walls.
- Horizontal components: Include prefabricated floor slabs, balconies, air conditioning panels, and stairs.
- Non-load-bearing components: PCF exterior panels and decorative elements that enhance the building’s façade and aesthetics.
The disassembly process considers five key factors: reasonable distribution of forces; requirements for production, transportation, and lifting; reinforcement structure of prefabricated components; connection and installation construction; and standardized design aiming for “fewer specifications, more combinations.”
In the Changyang Tiandi project, scientific disassembly limits prefabricated exterior wall panel types to six, interior wall panels to three, and balcony panels to one. Each prefabricated wall panel’s weight is controlled to be under six tons. Connecting nodes are designed to be as uniform as possible to reduce template variety.
Processing of Connection Nodes
Design and construction of connection nodes are critical challenges in prefabricated structures. The performance of these nodes determines the overall structural integrity. Connection nodes on-site are prone to quality issues, making their construction quality central to the entire structure’s quality. Therefore, node designs must be straightforward to build and ensure high construction quality.
For vertical load-bearing steel bars in prefabricated components, the project employs steel sleeve connection technology, widely used in earthquake-prone countries like the United States and Japan. Extensive theoretical and experimental studies by Chinese researchers have confirmed the safety and reliability of this method. It is included in China’s industry standard “Technical Regulations for Prefabricated Concrete Structures.” This grouting sleeve technology connects upper and lower steel bars by filling the annular gap between inner and outer sleeves with cement-based grout, ensuring efficient force transmission and accurate stress analysis consistent with real node conditions.
From an architectural perspective, key node treatment aspects include external insulation and waterproofing. The sandwich-style exterior wall panels consist of an inner concrete load-bearing layer, a middle insulation layer, and an outer concrete protective layer. Connectors join the inner and outer concrete layers as a whole, guaranteeing stable insulation performance, optimal heat transfer coefficients, and enhanced fire resistance. Waterproofing measures focus primarily on board joint areas: vertical joints use dual waterproof systems combining structural and material waterproofing, while horizontal joints apply similar dual waterproofing methods.
BIM Full Industry Chain Application
Integrating BIM with industrialized residential systems enhances refined project management and intensive operations, improving resource efficiency, reducing costs, and elevating design and construction quality.
BIM software can comprehensively detect all clashes between pipelines and civil works, enabling designers to make necessary adjustments and theoretically eliminate all pipeline conflicts. For example, Revit MEP optimizes pipeline tray design using data-driven system modeling, minimizing collisions between trays and between trays and structural components.
Design institutes must plan BIM applications across the entire industry chain and lifecycle of industrial projects. This includes defining BIM information application goals, standards, and handover protocols at each stage, establishing collaborative BIM platforms, and maintaining updates. BIM technology should be employed throughout the project lifecycle—from planning, design, component production, and construction to demolition—enabling owners to comprehensively and in real-time monitor project quality, progress, and costs.
Residential building industrialization represents a profound transformation in China’s construction industry and is an inevitable trend. Compared to developed countries like those in Europe, the U.S., and Japan, China’s housing industrialization is still in its early stages, facing challenges such as outdated management systems, incomplete technological frameworks, and high construction costs.
To advance, China must continue improving technological systems and establish incentive mechanisms to promote residential industrialization. Equally important is fostering integration across design, construction, and management. Coordination should span all phases—project planning, architectural design, manufacturing, transportation, construction, equipment installation, decoration, and operation management—to develop a fully integrated operational model.
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