The concepts of “modularity” and “prefabrication” require a deeper understanding being crucial to investigate their relation with the circular economy. Prefabrication involves pre-manufacturing building elements off-site and their transport to the construction site and assembly. Prefabrication can be divided into different categories: Component, Non-volumetric, Volumetric, Modular construction, Hybrid structures, or Whole building prefabrication; and can be based on linear (e.g., columns or pillars), bidimensional (e.g., walls or floor panels), or tri-dimensional elements (e.g., modules or whole prefabricated houses). The most commonly used materials are steel, wood, and concrete, although plastic, composite, and nature-based materials are increasingly being explored. While comparing the prefabricated materials, steel has high embodied impacts but recycle and reuse potential, timber has biogenic content and high reuse potential, and concrete poses transport and assembly challenges. The refurbishment of prefabricated buildings and the use of prefabricated elements in refurbishment are also discussed. The main benefits of adopting prefabrication are impact, cost, material, waste, and time reduction, with quality increase; and the challenges are cultural, technical, and market aspects with some investment required. A bibliometric analysis explores the relationship between modularity, prefabrication, and circular construction and concludes that the link between the three concepts seems fragile and unclear.

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