Prefabrication

With regard to the history of housing, ‘prefabrication’ may be considered as an invention of the 19th century industrialization. It is a way to realize off-site construction of housing, where the parts and components, or entire units, are fabricated in an environmentally controlled factory. After the in-factory assembly, they are transported to the building site, where the houses are erected eventually. Such industrialized homebuilding process can be carried out rapidly with a minimum of on-site labor efforts and under any conditions of weather and season. Dwellings built through the prefabrication process are referred to as ‘prefabricated homes’ or ‘prefabs.’ Presumably, these terms have been recognized since the early 20th century albeit the initial milestone dating back to 1833, when first historically documented prefabricated homes succeeded in Great Britain. Generally, prefabs are characterized by the lower and more predictable production cost, better and more standardized product quality and faster and more punctual construction than their site-built counterparts. At the building site, conventional housing can be rained on with uncovered lumber, plywood, insulation and other susceptible materials being soaked or blown around during bad weather. Such on-site construction nuisances tend to degrade the quality of site-built housing. Prefabrication of parts and components applied to housing elevates the degree of the in-factory completeness; thus, the optimum application leads to alleviation or elimination of these on-site nuisances