Marcin Kanoniczak
Housing Environment, 42/2023, 2023, pp. 66 - 79
https://doi.org/10.4467/25438700SM.23.005.17806The general substance of Polish housing construction in cities is largely represented by buildings made in prefabricated, large panel technology. Traditional construction methods, with the use of earlier craftsmanship technologies, turned out to be too inefficient to meet the growing demand for apartments, and therefore in the 1920s, when the so-called "International style” was introduced, new materials and technologies paved the way for their use in the construction industry, i.e. slabs, steel, reinforced concrete and industrial methods of manufacturing elements. As a result, after 1945 in Europe, and from the end of the 1950s also in Poland, prefabricated large panel construction caught on. Compared to buildings made in other technologies, the analysed large panel buildings offer a number of advantages but are also marred with many drawbacks, nonetheless, this construction technology will still be in use in the nearest future. The conducted studies and research of the field specific literature concern prospects of modern large panel construction, in this prospects of technical assumptions and directions of development of this specific concrete prefabricated construction technology. The aim of the conducted research and analyses is to show how modern architectural and technological solutions as well as functional and utility solutions can be adapted for the needs of multi-family residential buildings in order to ensure spacious rooms and full accessibility for people with reduced mobility. The article presents design analyses and options offered by modern large-size concrete elements in building technologies.