Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development: Instruct local governments to actively apply prefabricated concrete structures in affordable housing and commercial housing

On October 25, the State Information Office held a press conference on "Opinions on Promoting the Green Development of Urban and Rural Construction". Tian Guomin, Director of the Standards and Quota Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, revealed at the meeting that in the next step, local governments will be guided to actively apply prefabricated concrete structures in affordable housing and commercial housing, actively carry out pilot projects for steel structure housing, and encourage hospitals, schools and other public buildings to preferentially use steel structures.

Tian Guomin, Director of the Standards and Quota Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (Photo source: www.scio.com.cn) 

A few days ago, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Green Development of Urban and Rural Construction" ("Opinions"). The "Opinions" require the establishment of green construction demonstration projects to promote green, industrialization, informatization, intensification and industrialization of construction methods, use new technologies to achieve refined design and construction, and vigorously develop prefabricated buildings. Improve the certification system for green building materials products, strengthen the recycling of building materials, promote the transformation and upgrading of the traditional construction industry, reform the construction labor and employment system, and accelerate the reform of project costs.

Tian Guomin pointed out that at present, problems in the construction sector such as high resource consumption, high emissions, and extensive construction methods are still more prominent. It is imminent to promote green construction and promote the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry development mode. Currently, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has carried out some practices. The first is to promote the implementation of green construction pilot projects in Hunan Province, Shenzhen City in Guangdong Province, and Changzhou City in Jiangsu Province, and to issue "Technical Guidelines for Green Construction (Trial)". The second is to promote the rapid development of prefabricated buildings. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, a total of 1.6 billion square meters of prefabricated buildings have been built, with an average annual growth rate of 54%. Among them, newly started prefabricated buildings accounted for 20.5% of new buildings in 2021. The third is to focus on promoting the pilot construction of steel structure housing. In 2020, 190 million square meters of new steel structure buildings will be started nationwide, an increase of 46% compared to 2019, accounting for 30.2% of newly started prefabricated buildings. Among them, about 12 million square meters of steel structure residential buildings were newly started, an increase of 33% over 2019.

Tian Guomin said that in the next step, in order to promote the development of prefabricated buildings and steel structure buildings, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will build a standardized design and production system in accordance with the requirements of the "Opinions" and compile the "Design Selection Standards for Prefabricated Houses." Promote the positive design method of "less specifications, more combinations", expand the scale of standardized production and use, and promote the marketization and large-scale development of prefabricated buildings. At the same time, continue to improve the prefabricated concrete building structure system suitable for different building types, and accelerate the opening up of the industrial chain of steel structure residential design, production, and construction. In addition, intensify promotion, guide local governments to actively apply prefabricated concrete structures in affordable housing and commercial housing, actively carry out pilot projects for steel structure housing, and encourage hospitals, schools and other public buildings to preferentially use steel structures.