From High-Tech Icons to Social Housing: The Evolving Role of Prefabrication

Prefabrication has historically been used to achieve a high degree of architectural precision, pushing the boundaries of construction and design. A notable early example is Norman Foster’s HSBC Headquarters in Hong Kong, completed in the 1980s. Renowned for its high-tech modernist approach—comparable to Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano’s Centre Pompidou—the building employs innovative structural principles to create a striking, open central atrium while elevating itself above ground level. This design allows the public realm to seamlessly flow through its base, ensuring 24/7 accessibility, except two iconic escalators that connect to above. These escalators have a motorized horizontal retractable shutter system, serving as the primary security barrier to regulate access. Additionally, mechanical equipment and traditional building core elements, such as stairs and elevators, are relocated to the exterior edge, showcasing the building’s high-tech aesthetic while maximizing interior openness.

To achieve this ambitious vision—including its pioneering structural approach, precision in mechanical systems, and high-quality finishes—Foster revealed that nearly every building component was prefabricated. These components were manufactured in the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom before being shipped to Hong Kong for on-site assembly, as Hong Kong lacked the necessary fabrication technology at the time. Even the bathrooms arrived as fully assembled units with towel racks, basins, and other hardware. By leveraging global expertise and state-of-the-art manufacturing processes, Foster was able to realize one of the most technologically advanced buildings of its time, despite its high cost. Today, HSBC Headquarters remains a defining architectural landmark in Hong Kong, exemplifying how prefabrication can bring together quality, innovation, and aesthetic refinement.

More recently, another project within minutes of the HSBC Headquarters continues to explore and expand the boundaries of prefabrication. Zaha Hadid’s The Henderson, located between the Bank of China Tower and Hutchison House, exemplifies this approach through a collaboration with Seele, a specialist in high-precision facade engineering and design. The building’s double-curved glass panels, measuring up to 2 by 5 meters, incorporate multiple coatings to optimize performance and aesthetics. These panels required extreme precision, as each piece was uniquely shaped and engineered. The double-bent aluminum profiles that frame them were also custom prefabricated to ensure a seamless fit. This level of manufacturing could only have been achieved off-site, in a controlled environment, using cutting-edge technology.

Although The Henderson is an office building serving largely private clients, its distinctive façade is critical in defining Hong Kong’s architectural identity. Much like HSBC’s open atrium in the 1980s, its mesmerizing double-curved glass form contributes to the city’s evolving skyline and architectural aspirations. As prefabrication enables ever more intricate and ambitious designs, these landmark projects demonstrate how the technique is a tool for refinement and a driver of architectural expression.

Modular Integrated Construction (MiC): Efficiency Over Customization

While prefabrication may have initially been used to create landmark buildings that push material and construction limits, it is also being deployed in a different context. Rather than leveraging advanced fabrication for superior quality, a new wave of prefabricated construction focuses on efficiency and cost-effectiveness, particularly in Hong Kong’s public housing sector.

Hong Kong has long faced challenges in providing adequate public housing. Due to the city’s high labor costs, prefabrication is increasingly used to produce apartment modules in regions with lower labor expenses. These prefabricated apartments arrive as nearly complete units, reducing on-site labor and construction time. The result is twofold: first, it accelerates the delivery of public housing units to address supply shortages, and second, it lowers costs, allowing funding initiatives to serve a larger population.

The government has introduced policies categorizing these prefabricated units under Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) to facilitate this approach. MiC involves assembling fully finished, free-standing modules off-site before transporting them for installation. The Hong Kong Buildings Department grants pre-approval to MiC systems, ensuring compliance with construction and safety standards before on-site implementation. This method significantly shortens project timelines, reduces on-site labor requirements, and minimizes construction waste. However, it also raises concerns regarding design flexibility and architecture’s ability to respond to contexts and specific user groups.

Balancing Efficiency and Flexibility: The Limits of Standardized Manufacturing

While MiC offers undeniable efficiency gains, its limitations are becoming increasingly apparent. A recently completed MiC-based public housing complex in Hong Kong has revealed significant constraints for residents. Because these prefabricated units arrive with pre-installed and pre-approved kitchens, bathrooms, and partition walls, occupants face challenges in modifying their living spaces. Structural concerns arise if a resident attempts to alter a simple partitioning wall, as modifications, no matter how minor, could compromise the integrity of the prefabricated unit. Furthermore, building codes present additional hurdles—since MiC units are pre-approved, any alteration could possibly invalidate their compliance status, no matter how minor.

Beyond interior modifications, even basic adjustments—such as relocating an air conditioning unit—can become problematic due to MiC’s rigid design constraints. These limitations restrict inhabitants’ ability to adapt their homes to evolving needs, reducing long-term flexibility. Additionally, building maintenance presents another challenge. Construction methods tailored for factory production and large-scale manufacturing may not be well-suited for hands-on, ad-hoc, on-site repairs. This raises a critical question: Will these quick-fix, low-cost solutions ultimately lead to more complex long-term issues, diminishing their intended benefits?

Moreover, as MiC gains traction, architects face an evolving professional landscape. Traditionally, architects have been central in shaping buildings from concept to completion; however, MiC’s reliance on pre-approved, mass-produced modules challenges this framework. Government policies prioritizing rapid, large-scale, low-cost construction elsewhere—particularly for public housing—risk reducing architectural design to a standardized, repetitive process.  Every social housing MiC building will be much like a cookie-cutter factory mold – irrelevant of its location, site condition, and community characteristics, it will all look the same and be built the same, much contrary to the unique and highly customized HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong.

A contrasting approach can be found in California, where collaboration between architects and policymakers has led to a more inclusive prefabrication model. The state’s pre-approval process for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) allows firms of all sizes—including small and medium-sized practices—to contribute diverse design solutions, rather than limiting the process to large-scale manufacturers. Residents who wish to bypass lengthy approval times can select a pre-approved ADU and engage directly with architects to refine their project. By integrating efficiency with architectural innovation, California ensures that prefabrication enhances, rather than restricts, design flexibility and the evolution of the urban fabric.

Prefabrication and Site-Specific Design: A Persistent Challenge

One of the most significant challenges of standardized prefabrication is maintaining site specificity. Architecture has traditionally been rooted in responding to environmental, cultural, and contextual factors, yet the mass production of prefabricated modules risks overlooking these nuances. How can a fully prefabricated building—composed of identical rooms, units, and finishes—truly engage with its surroundings if every component is designed to fit a uniform system?

While prefabrication and Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) offer significant advantages in speed, cost efficiency, and sustainability, their widespread adoption demands a critical reassessment of design processes. Cities and governments must ensure that efficiency does not sacrifice architectural integrity and adaptability. Architects must advocate for a balanced approach—one that embraces the benefits of prefabrication while preserving design quality, site responsiveness, and long-term livability.