The relevance of timber prefabrication to housing production in Kenya

Abstract

This thesis constitutes a study which focuses on the relevance of timber prefabrication to housing production in Kenya. Prefabrication is an imported technology from the advanced countries and as such, a lot of emphasis has been laid on current issues regarding choice of production technology, technology transfer and measures of appropriate technology specifically as regards the construction industry in Kenya today. The core of the study focuses on the determination of the appropriateness of prefabrication of houses in Kenya using already developed economic criteria and the assessment of the economic impact of technology transfer in the construction industry using timber prefabrication as a case study. section comprises the introduct6ry chapter covering the general introduction formalities of the study. This chapter could be regarded as the backbone of the study setting out the problem statement, the objectives of the study, the study hypothesis, the scope and the significance of the study and the study methodology. Chapter two centres on the literature review especially as regardschoice of production technique to the production process in general and in the construction industry in particular. Chapters three and four basically set out the historical develooment of prefabrication first in other parts of the world and then the discussion narrows down in chapter four to Kenya. Chapter five could be regarded as the core of the study dealing with data analysis and finally chapter six gives the findings of the study, conclusions and recommendations. To analyse timber prefabrication in Kenya, four firms were taken as the case studies. These includes Timsales, Economic Housing Group, GD Brothers and Forest Industrial Training Centre. The four firms comprises approximately 90% of the total prefab market in Kenya making it a good sample for any generalisations to be done. The data and information for these case studies were collected between August 1987 - January 1988 mainly through recorded information, interviews and field observations. The results from the four firms have tended to have similar characteristics. Prefabrication in Kenya is practised on a very small scale with.the main market limitations being the small size of the domestic market and the existing building regulations which prohibits the use of inflamable materials in urban areas. As it is currently, prefabrication may be regarded as an appropriate technology as far as production of houses is concerned. However, prefabrication on a large scale should be undertaken with a lot of taution because the prerequisites for large scale production are such that they render prefabrication in Kenya inappropriate. The dividing line is tricky and this requires a systematic approach to technology transfer to ensure that any foreign technology is carefully scrutinized to determine whether it is appropriate or not.