Prefabricated Structures

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems as though there’s a lot more interest in prefabricated structures nowadays than just tired old mobile homes or commercial prefabricated steel structures. When the homepage of Yahoo.com flashes feature articles on slick new prefab designs clearly done by gifted architects, it’s pretty clear that the old associations of this type of construction being driven by cost considerations alone, are changing.

Well, why would they not change? Just because prefabricated housing was conceived a century ago as being a cheap solution to provide livable homes to large numbers of people without the means to afford decent housing on their own, doesn’t mean that some creativity can’t be added to the same construction methods. A quick search on the Internet shows that when this happens, it produces gorgeous homes that are relatively inexpensive to construct as well as achieving real savings for homeowners when it comes to utility bills.

Of course modular construction will always be an attractive option when it comes to putting cheap housing on land that is relatively inexpensive. There will always be a need for housing solutions of this kind. But it’s worth affirming the value of methods of construction and materials usage that are at once easier on the environment and more economical, especially when it has been clearly shown now that using methods of prefabricated construction need not compromise the aesthetic sensibilities of homebuyers.

If some of the creations produced by architects in the last 20 years or so are any indication, the future looks bright indeed for prefab structures. In fact, in some situations these houses make it possible to live in places where one couldn’t put house previously. Some people have the dream of “living off the grid”, or at least putting a second home or a retirement home in a remote location, but the logistics of power generation and adequate water supplies rendered this dream possible for people without a lot of money. Prefabricated building techniques will reduce the cost of transporting building materials to a remote building site, as well as construction time required. But the real advantage is that the sensible, spare designs normally characterizing prefabricated construction mean that elements like solar paneling and water catchment can be incorporated into the designs of these homes rather than being an inefficient afterthought purchased at Home Depot and installed by yet another contractor.

Considerations such as these make prefabricated possibilities more attractive than ever. Maybe that piece of land that has been in the family for generations, that no one imagined would work as a site for a livable home, should be reconsidered. Prefabricated structures today give everyone a chance to make use of property that might have had a little functional value previously. Take a look at the possibilities, you might be very surprised.

Does making the Yahoo! home page mean that you are no longer on the margins? Maybe. In any case, it’s good to see Clayton Homes’ i-house right smack dab in the middle of public consciousness even if only for a day. It will retail between $100 to $130 a square foot, is highly customizable, and as you’d imagine it has green features galore. Clayton Homes is aiming for the higher-end i-house to represent 10% of its business in 12 to 18 months.

It seems clear that in the long run, prefabricated structures will have a larger role in housing, and building in general. The reason is really one of basic economics. Assuming that basic design considerations can be satisfied without regard for the eventual specific location of the prefab structure, and also in such a way that customizations can be added to the design at later stages, immense cost reductions can be achieved by performing basic, repetitive tasks away from the building site. By applying cheaper labor to specific early-stage jobs over large production runs of prefabricated building components, it’s easy to see how substantial savings will occur.


Does introducing production-line elements to construction mean that the finished product has to be simple, or worse, boring? Not at all. In fact, with a little forethought, the same methods that result in cost savings with prefabricated structures in the first place will also make feasible design intricacies that might not have otherwise been. All else being equal, a worker of a given skill level will have an easier time maintaining a higher quality of finished product, regardless of its complexity, if he performs similar, or even identical, tasks repeatedly. As the architect incorporates this notion into his original concept, it can invite vibrancy and excitement into his design without violating budgetary considerations. What might have been rejected out of hand as an expensive extraneous flourish, might suddenly become at least open for discussion.


One wonders if, in a future that makes a much greater use of prefabricated structures, the function of finish carpenters, for example, might be more limited to tasks that make use of their talent and artistry, rather than more mundane tasks that could be accomplished offsite at great savings. Indeed, the combination of overlaying the talents of highly skilled workers performing functions most suited to them, with mass-production techniques left to other workers in other places, through a more pronounced separation of labor than normally occurs today, is a compelling one.

Blending the cost benefits of prefabricated structures with attractive, practical designs for living and working should be a challenge that architects relish, not one to be resented as an infringement upon creativity. If use of prefab is a constraint, it certainly does not need to be a limitation. Just as challenging terrain can be used to the advantage of a gifted architect that show off talents that would not otherwise have been revealed, so can we be dazzled by efficiency and attention to economical use of prefabricated materials.

Oh yes, oh yes– a gorgeous one-bedroom, 600 sq. ft. prefabricated home with panelized construction, a product of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Called Taliesin Mod.Fab(TM), it incorporates water and energy saving features like greywater re-use, rainwater catchment, and solar paneling, should one want to completely unplug. The design makes an asset of the spare simplicity that often characterizes prefab structures, in my opinion.