Prefabricated home

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An Australian modern prefabricated house
An Australian modern prefabricated house

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.
  • Social stigma that exists because of low quality mass produced designs used in the past.
  • Difficulties obtaining finance due to stricter guidelines being used by lenders to assess prefab home loans.[1]

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 after 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.

A new development of modern prefabricated homes are currently being built in Milton Keynes, England. Designed by renowned architect Richard Rogers, designer of the Lloyd's building, the Millennium Dome and the Pompidou Centre in Paris, these new 'prefab' homes are part of a wider government objective to breathe new building methods into the housing market within the United Kingdom and show that 'Prefab' is not only still alive, but also well respected.

A prefab material can be used in a quick, easy and fast installation of any structure like a house, home, storage, cabin or garage. The prefab material is becoming popular to construct any building structure as it is cheap, fast to build and durable. The prefab home or house requires much less labour as compared to conventional houses or homes. Most of the companies are selling complete pre manufactured prefab modular homes or houses called "mobile homes" or "manufactured homes". Prefab homes are becoming popular in Europe, Canada and United States as they are cheap and durable. Local building codes (LBC) do not apply to prefab homes or houses; instead, these houses are built according to specialized guidelines called (Federal HUD regulations in the United States) for manufactured housing. Manufactured homes are not permitted in some communities and therefore, one should check from their local city to find about prefab building and construction laws regarding prefab homes

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