Prefab

by Allison Arieff, Bryan Burkhart, Tiffany Clarke Harrison

Book Overview

Prefab presents a series of innovative homes and concepts that boldly demonstrate that this is not your grandmother's prefab, offers a glimpse into the history of prefabricated housing over the last... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586851322
• ISBN13: 9781586851323
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 10.2" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Any collection strong in architecture and home design will welcome the color photos and in-depth his

Prefabricated houses have a reputation for being cheap and ugly, with identical structures and little character - but PREFAB offers a set of exceptions and provides proposals from architects and designers who made their prefabs different. A history of prefab's choices and paths uses the work of over twenty-five modern architects and designers to profile a range of prefab options. Any collection strong in architecture and home design will welcome the color photos, in-depth history and construction details.

Prefab

Prebrication was the holy grail of modernism: the ideal way to rationalize the building process, achieve economies of scale, and bring good design to the masses. Sadly, the only manufactured housing to win wide acceptance was the trailer; architect-designed prototypes seldom left the boards. Arieff, who is senior editor of Dwell magazine, hopes that a new generation of architects may succeed where their forebears failed. She documents over 30 industrialized building projects, mostly from Europe, that combine practicality with design excellence. Sadly, it remains true that people who will happily buy one of a fleet of identical cars, become emotional and irrational when choosing their home. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)

Prefab: pretty fabulous

It looks like a coffee table book yet reads like a dream. This is not only one of the most comprehensive books on the subject, but easily the most lucid and engaging. The authors clearly had fun with the material and manage to convey a good deal of knowledge - including the history and future of prefabricated housing - without a whiff of pedantry or pedagogical claptrap.

finally, a comprehensive book on prefab

As an architecture student now a working as a builder, I couldnt help but being drawn into this book. Organized into 4 sections: History, Production, Custom, Concept, with a wide array of photographs, plans and renderings cleanly presented. The history section does a great job of bringing any curious reader interested in this subject up to speed, creating a great departure point for the 30 or so contemporary projects that follow it. This book is well researched and really gets you excited about the potential of prefab by presenting a wide range of projects in the U.S. and Internationally, exploring a wide range of techniques / systems being developed today. The future of housing looks bright with prefab!

Great options for well-designed affordable housing

This book shows that there ARE options for innovative and affordable modern homes. Prefabrication has lots to recommend it; what's been holding it back is a lack of good materials and design. Prefab will hopefully help to change that...