Definitions, concepts and new directions in Industrialized Building Systems (IBS)

Nowadays, industrialization of construction is important due to increase in quality, mass production and etc. This subject is much discussed in periods of time from various points of view, so it has various definitions and concepts in each period by changing trends in and views to industrialization. The main objective of this paper is to study new directions of industrialization in construction, which leads to discuss contemporary and progressive trends of this subject, so this paper offers a background for the subject of industrialization. In this paper, new definitions and attitudes are presented by comprehensive review of previous researches with an explanatory and analytical method to extract new directions in building industrialization; also questionnaires and interviews are used to extract criteria and suggestions of new directions. The directions have been discussed in three sections, requirements (quality and economical advantages), social trends and sustainability; so contemporary industrialized building systems are focused on sustainability as a new comprehensive direction. For sustainability direction a conceptual model is presented to explain the Sustainable Industrialized Building Systems (SIBS) as a new trend and presenting some practical suggestions.