Prefabricated home

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Prefabricated homes, often referred to as prefab homes, are dwellings manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled. Many of the current prefab home designs on the market have jovial, eclectic elements of postmodernism or the clean, simple lines of futurism. Prefab homes have not been particularly marketable; possible reasons for this include:

Homes are not currently produced cost effectively enough for current demand.
Homes are not considered a realistic housing solution by the average consumer.
The consumer is either not familiar with the concept, or does not desire it.

Recently, however, modern architects are experimenting more often with prefabrication as a means to deliver well-designed and mass-produced modern homes. Modern architecture forgoes referential decoration and instead features clean lines and open floor plans. Because of this, many feel modern architecture is better suited to benefit from prefabrication.

The word "Prefab" is not an industry term like modular home, manufactured home, panelized home, or site-built home. The term is an amalgamation of panelized and modular building systems, and can mean either one. In today's usage the term "Prefab" is more closely related to the style of home, usually modernist, rather than to a particular method of home construction.

In the United Kingdom the word "Prefab" is often associated with a specific type of prefabricated house built in large numbers during the Second World War as a temporary replacement for housing that had been destroyed by bombs, particularly in London. Despite the intention that these dwellings would be a strictly temporary measure, many remained inhabited for years and even decades after the end of the war. A small number are still in use well into the 21st Century.