Prefab Housing and the Future of Building

As we stand on the cusp of a fundamental restructuring of the housing and building industries, this book provides timely insights into the promise of prefabricated housing. The idea of a more industrialised approach to house building is not a new one: since the 19thcentury, designers, inventors, engineers, builders, developers, and entrepreneurs have all been fascinated by the idea of the factory-built, modular home. But international housing affordability crises, emerging technologies, and concerns for more sustainable building practices have given a new urgency to the need to transform building construction in the 21st century.

Richly illustrated and drawing on historical examples and contemporary design studies, the book takes the reader through the foundations of prefab, leading up to a discussion of contemporary problems and opportunities. It includes a broad international survey of leading companies and their products, and draws on research from an international team of experts in the field. This book suggests a future scenario for industrialised house building that will both challenge the existing industry and stimulate the public imagination.

Dr Mathew Aitchison is Professor in Architecture at the University of Sydney, where he directs the Innovation in Applied Design Lab.Full author list:Mathew Aitchison, Toktam Bashirzadeh Tabrizi, Anne Beim, Rachel Couper, Robert Doe, Dan Engström, Ivana Kuzmanovska, Helena Lidelöw, Duncan Maxwell, John Macarthur, Jonathan Nelson, Masa Noguchi, Marc Norman, Martin Rudberg, Ivan Rupnik, Ryan Smith, Lars Stehn, and Jose Torero Cullen.