Sustainability of off-site construction : a bibliometric review and visualized analysis of trending topics and themes

Abstract

Off-site construction (OSC) involves the fabrication and assembly of building components in a purpose-built factory which are then transported to the job site for final installation. OSC has proven to be a greener construction approach, spurring research towards benchmarking the sustainable attributes of the technique. However, a quantitative statistical analysis of studies on OSC sustainability and a framework of the knowledge domain are not well-established. Drawing on 642 bibliographic records from Scopus, this paper conducted a bibliometric and visualized analysis of research on the sustainability of OSC from 1971 to 2019. The findings show that research publications on OSC sustainability only witnessed steady growth since 2000. A geospatial analysis revealed that at least 32% of countries are involved in the OSC sustainability research, of which the United States, China, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada make the greatest contributions. The hot topics in the contemporary OSC sustainability research were identified as embodied carbon, embodied energy, construction waste, post-occupancy evaluation, resources conservation, and recycling, and cost savings. The paper identified areas that require further research. Thus, the paper offers an all-embracing understanding of the core research themes, trends, and patterns on OSC sustainability to stakeholders.