De los sistemas de prefabricación cerrada a la industrialización sutil de la edifi cación: Algunas claves del cambio tecnológico

Abstract

The present article discusses facts as well as possible assumptions relating to the evolution of building in Europe in general and Spain in particular, and the development of the technologies used in the industrialization of construction over a long period: essentially from 1970 to date. It is, then, an overview of the events that have occasioned or affected housing construction, ranging from closed system precasting, consisting primarily in large concrete panels, to the new design and building methods that entail the use of construction components and subsystems of different origins. The paper is organized around five subjects that at least partially reflect and update contributions previously published by the author on the following: chronological evolution of the most common construction technologies used in the last three decades; changes in precast and prefabricated member production; joints as invariants in industrialized construction; the new approach to modular coordination; and the economic impact of functional elements on housing construction budgets.