Integrated Assessment of Prefabricated Building Systems for Rapid Urban Residential Construction

Accelerated delivery of urban housing increasingly depends on coordination among architectural design, industrial fabrication, construction logistics, municipal infrastructure, and long-term building performance. Prefabrication can relocate significant work from variable building sites to controlled production environments, but its effectiveness cannot be inferred from assembly speed alone. This conceptual and comparative study develops an integrated assessment framework for prefabricated residential projects in Polish cities, distinguishing panelized, volumetric, and hybrid construction pathways. The analysis considers structural and architectural constraints, design freeze, manufacturing quality, transport limits, crane interfaces, workforce organization, schedule reliability, embodied impacts, operational performance, procurement, and resident-oriented adaptability. Evidence from established research is interpreted as conditional rather than universally transferable. A qualitative decision matrix demonstrates how project context changes the suitability of each approach without presenting invented field measurements. Findings indicate that prefabrication is most credible when repeatable building elements, early multidisciplinary coordination, stable demand, and well-planned interfaces coexist. The proposed framework supports transparent decisions between conventional, partially prefabricated, and highly industrialized delivery while protecting architectural quality and lifecycle value.