24th Mar 2009
Prefabricated Future
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.
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.
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Future Of Prefabricated Structures, Prefabricated House 
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