ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 229

The vast majority of the housing developments are located far from the centre of the city, in
the periphery, where land is cheaper. Typically, these developments are fitted with minimal infrastructure, lack the provision of urban and community services and have not been integrated into
the transport or infrastructure networks. Mass housing developments are commonly shaped by
dwellings of one and two levels, covering large areas of land with very low-density housing with
low numbers of inhabitants per hectare (Sánchez, 2012). These developments, have little variety in
their design, and are developed from clusters of about 50 homes, opening the possibility of gated
sections within the development (Hernández et al., 2005; Peralta and Hofer, 2006; Coulomb et al.,
2009; Lopez-Silva et al., 2011; López Estrada and Leal Iga, 2012; Gilbert, 2014).
Furthermore, these developments are constructed in areas where the climate conditions can be
challenging, the environmental and energy performance of those is rarely a primary consideration, as factors such as erection speed and cost minimisation typically take priority. In this context,
there is evidence indicating that a significant number of new housing construction has serious
problems of comfort that are relatively reflected in high consumption of energy (Coulomb and
Schteingart, 2006).
Industrialised Building Systems (IBSs)
Many of the mass housing developments in Mexico have been achieved by using industrialised
building systems (IBSs) through the production of repetitive prototypes. Trikha (1999), has defined industrialised building system as “a building system in which all building components such
as wall, floor, slab, beam and staircase are mass produced either in a factory or at the site under
strict quality control and minimal onsite activities”. Under the category of mass produced in site,
large housing developers in Mexico have widely adopted the IBSs also known as “Concrete Formwork System”.
The Concrete Formwork System uses two main components: concrete and steel; this characteristic allows accurate calculations of inputs and consequently, zero waste. Working in this way,
significant savings can be achieved and higher profits can be earned by companies (Hernández
et al., 2005).
In the construction process, all elements of the house are cast simultaneously by pouring the
concrete in the formwork, which is previously placed to form walls and ceilings; the prefabricated
details are added in a final stage (Fig.2). This systematic process of identical and repetitive actions
is a linear method that can be easily replicated, allowing total control of housing production. In
this way, companies manage to make considerable savings regarding monitoring costs, construction management and production.

Figure 2: Dwellings constructed via industrialized building system of Concrete Formwork

Thermal performance of industrialised housing construction in Centra

227