Purpose Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is an innovative construction material that provides a balanced mix of structural stiffness, fabrication flexibility and sustainability. CLT development and innovation diffusion require close collaborations between its supply chain architectural, engineering, construction and manufacturing (AECM) stakeholders. As such, the purpose of this study is to provide a preliminary understanding of the knowledge diffusion and innovation process of CLT construction. Design/methodology/approach The study implemented a longitudinal social network analysis of the AECM companies involved in 100 CLT projects in the UK. The project data were acquired from an industry publication and decoded in the form of a multimode project-company network, which was projected into a single-mode company collaborative network. This complete network was filtered into a four-phase network to allow the longitudinal analysis of the CLT collaborations over time. A set of network and node social network analysis metrics was used to characterize the topology patters of the network and the centrality of the companies. Findings The study highlighted the scale-free structure of the CLT collaborative network that depends on the influential hubs of timber manufacturers, engineers and contractors to accelerate the innovation diffusion. However, such CLT supply collaborative network structure is more vulnerable to disruptions due to its dependence on these few prominent hubs. Also, the industry collaborative network’s decreased modularity confirms the maturity of the CLT technology and the formation of cohesive clusters of innovation partners. The macro analysis approach of the study highlighted the critical role of supply chain upstream stakeholders due to their higher centralities in the collaborative network. Stronger collaborations were found between the supply chain upstream stakeholders (timber manufacturers) and downstream stakeholders (architects and main contractors). Originality/value The study contributes to the field of industrialized and CLT construction by characterizing the collaborative networks between CLT supply chain stakeholders that are critical to propose governmental policies and industry initiatives to advance this sustainable construction material.@en

Off-site construction has been a crucial part of industrializing the industry to realize higher productivity, better quality, and a more sustainable approach for constructing buildings. Off-site construction requires decomposing a floor plan into modules that can be in the form of either panelized walls or volumetric modules. However, the previous modularization models and approaches are limited due to their inability to consider the topological constraints of the modules, the flexible modularization of varying floor plans, and the mixed use of panelized walls and volumetric modules. As such, this paper proposes a graph-based optimization methodology for the hybrid modularization of building floor plans. The methodology was implemented using a multiobjective genetic algorithm that encodes and decodes the floor plan using novel graph modeling and operations. A visual programming script was developed to extract the wall properties, their adjacencies, and junction information from the building information model (BIM) of the floor plan. Time and cost estimation functions were developed to evaluate the hybrid strategies of panelized-volumetric modularization. The deployment of the methodology was demonstrated using an example floor plan design, which resulted in a spectrum of hybrid modularization plans ranging between fully volumetric and fully panelized solutions. For this specific example, the fully volumetric solution was 23% faster than the fully panelized solution but was 22% more expensive. The main contributions of this study are the topological modeling of module types, their floor plan postdesign flexible utilization, and the ability to explore hybrid modularization strategies. The findings of this study can prove useful for modular and off-site building manufacturers to improve their agility and increase their market share.@en

Off-site construction has been a crucial part of industrializing the industry to realize higher productivity, better quality, and a more sustainable approach for constructing buildings. Off-site construction requires decomposing a floor plan into modules that can be in the form of either panelized walls or volumetric modules. However, the previous modularization models and approaches are limited due to their inability to consider the topological constraints of the modules, the flexible modularization of varying floor plans, and the mixed use of panelized walls and volumetric modules. As such, this paper proposes a graph-based optimization methodology for the hybrid modularization of building floor plans. The methodology was implemented using a multiobjective genetic algorithm that encodes and decodes the floor plan using novel graph modeling and operations. A visual programming script was developed to extract the wall properties, their adjacencies, and junction information from the building information model (BIM) of the floor plan. Time and cost estimation functions were developed to evaluate the hybrid strategies of panelized-volumetric modularization. The deployment of the methodology was demonstrated using an example floor plan design, which resulted in a spectrum of hybrid modularization plans ranging between fully volumetric and fully panelized solutions. For this specific example, the fully volumetric solution was 23% faster than the fully panelized solution but was 22% more expensive. The main contributions of this study are the topological modeling of module types, their floor plan postdesign flexible utilization, and the ability to explore hybrid modularization strategies. The findings of this study can prove useful for modular and off-site building manufacturers to improve their agility and increase their market share.@en