Awareness and Adoption of Prefabrication Construction: A Tool for Housing Delivery

Recent technological advancements, heightened awareness of environmental pollution, persistent shortages of affordable housing for low- and middle-income earners, and various environmental challenges have prompted research into innovative construction methods. These factors have shaped global perspectives on housing delivery. This study employs a narrative review to assess knowledge, awareness, barriers, drivers, and the adoption of prefabrication as a strategy for mass housing delivery. The review draws on peer-reviewed sources, including articles, books, and grey literature, sourced from Google Scholar, Scopus, Semantic Scholar, and JSTOR. Through a systematic inclusion and exclusion process, the selection was refined from over 76 papers to 38 relevant studies. The findings reveal an increasing housing shortfall. Contributing factors include rapid population growth, ruralurban migration, restrictive land-use policies, high costs of land and building materials, inadequate financing, limited involvement of the real estate sector, inconsistent policies, slow construction processes, and insufficient awareness and adoption of prefabrication. The study recommends enhanced collaboration, awareness campaigns, and incentives among professionals in the built environment, academia, the private sector, and government to promote the adoption of prefabrication in Nigeria's construction industry and address the housing deficit. Keywords: adoption, awareness, conventional building system, housing delivery, prefabrication.