New advancements, challenges and opportunities of multi-storey modular buildings – A state-of-the-art review

•Reviewed recent progress and directed future research for modular buildings.•Commonly used in UK, Sweden, Japan and USA with growing interest in Australia and China.•Prefabricated components have demonstrated satisfactory structural performance.•Uptake barriers are mainly related to the lack of logistical support.•Prefabricated modular buildings is the next generation of housing. Modular construction offers faster and safer manufacturing, better predictability to completion time, superior quality, less workers on site, less resource wastage, and a more environmentally friendly solution than the conventional construction process. Despite having several advantages of modular construction, the private sector still relies heavily on the traditional on-site construction method. To understand the scientific reason behind this situation, this paper critically reviews the recent developments, performances, challenges and future opportunities of modular buildings. Modular constructions are extensively used for low-rise buildings and further attracts strong interest for multi-storey building structures. Prefabricated modules demonstrated satisfactory performance under static, dynamic impact, cyclic, seismic, blast, fire and long-term sustained loading, and offer environmental, economic and social benefits. The acceptance and application of modular construction will further spread with the development of design guidelines, more skilled workers, addressing handing and transportation difficulties, and the development of novel interlocking connections between modules. Recently, composite materials demonstrated high potential to manufacture prefabricated building modules. In Australia, it is expected that modular construction will increase from the current stage of 3% to 5–10% by year 2030.