Flexibility in Prefabrication Approaches: Lessons from two US Homebuilders

The growing attention to producing consumer friendly, sustainable and affordable housing has triggered innovative prefab housing approaches. To satisfy diverse and individualized customer demands, leading architects have pioneered the concept of prefabricated modernism, collaborating intimately with contractors to take more control of the production and assembly process. This shift is partially attributed to the advancements of digital design and manufacturing technologies that connect Building Information Modeling (BIM) and parametric modeling tools to prefabrication. Literature suggests the return of “master builders” based on enhanced communication and control capabilities of the architect. However, the widespread delivery of architectdesigned homes remains largely unrealized. The authors believe that lack of understanding of the prefab production processes is a significant barrier to this adoption.