Abstract

Prefabrication has demonstrated measurable and repeatable advantages in productivity, cost certainty, and environmental performance, yet its adoption within industrial building typologies remains largely inconsistent. Existing research largely evaluates prefabrication through downstream performance outcomes, while offering limited insight into the upstream design and organizational decisions that enable or undermine its reliability. This thesis reframes prefabrication as a design‑led methodology rather than a construction optimization, arguing that successful hybrid prefabrication is determined primarily by early decision timing, governance structures, and the control of spatial and logistical interfaces. This study adopts a qualitative design‑research approach that combines comparative case study analysis with expert interviews to examine how prefabrication decisions are structured in practice. Three case studies, spanning rule‑based prefabrication platforms, modular design studios, and BIM‑enabled coordination workflows, are analyzed through direct comparison using theoretical constructs developed in the literature, including governance models, interface control, and early strategic commitment. Semi‑structured interviews with industry professionals supplement the case analysis by grounding the findings in practice and revealing contextual limits to implementation. The findings demonstrate that prefabrication reliability correlates less with technological capability than with decision discipline. Projects that establish prefabrication as an early governing assumption, enforce spatial authority through BIM‑based workflows, and integrate logistics as well as regulatory constraints early in design consistently outperform those relying on late‑stage coordination. Drawing from these results, the thesis proposes a four‑stage design framework, early strategic commitment, authoritative spatial governance, filtered decision‑making, and logistics‑aware validation, positioning architects as central agents in structuring prefabricated systems at industrial facilities.

Publication Date

4-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Architecture (M.Arch.)

Department, Program, or Center

Architecture, Department of

College

Golisano Institute for Sustainability

Advisor

Seth Holmes

Advisor/Committee Member

Alissa De Wit-Paul

Advisor/Committee Member

Julius J. Chiavaroli

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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