Prefab Architecture: A Guide to Modular Design and Construction

Just buy the book is worth the money. The information and photos are priceless. I am, planing to build my home soon with containers.

I have quite few books on this area and this for me the best resource for anyone looking information on the offsite industry. I would describe it more of a textbook as it covers the background, applications of different forms of offsite construction from concept design through to manufacturability and includes all of the necessary planning issues and nuances like assemblies, systems, materials, transportation and craning etc. There are also excellent case studies and references to major players in the industry to further expand your knowledge. There is also a very concise bibliography to all referenced books and articles. One slight drawback is that it tends to be focused primarily on the US industry.

After decades of interest in affordable residential construction methods, thousands of dollars invested in Peter Miller Design Bookstore in my hometown of Seattle, a pilgrimage to MIT and Harvard Universities to research Walter Gropius and Karl Wachsmann's pioneering efforts in prefab, I can say without reservation you will learn find an enormous amount of useful, practical information in this well organized book. I most certainly did. If you are tired of pretty coffee table displays of extravagantly expensive "prefab" architecture (mostly angular, sterile modernism, mis-classified as a book on prefab), then in this book you have finally found an intelligent reservoir of useful analysis covering the deep history of prefabricated architecture, it's variety of scales and applications: commercial, residential. The author is not afraid to explore the strengths and weaknesses of prefab methodology, gathered from his direct connection to the industry and countless interviews of prefab practitioners: designers, fabricators and their clients. My own application is to launch a startup firm, with others in Seattle, to provide significantly more affordable ADU (backyard cottages) so desperately needed as a density option in the increasingly unaffordable Seattle metro area. I mention this to indicate how much I appreciate both the theory and practice elements in the book.

I work with a team of builders and fabricators with experience fabricating over 1,000 projects in 10 countries. Based on our many years of experience and work with architects, structural engineers, other fabricators and general contractors, I wish I could make this book required reading for anyone seriously considering fabrication. Integrating fabrication and building information modeling could change the entire industry. Unfortunately architects typically don't begin working with fabricators until late in the design process and therefore miss the opportunity to fully exploit the potential. The case for ongoing collaboration across domains is made repeatedly throughout the book yet this is rarely what happens on real projects. I highly recommend this book and Deke Smith's Building Information Modeling: A Strategic Implementation Guide for Architects, Engineers, Constructors, and Real Estate Asset Managers . Both books make clear that integrated building information modeling and fabrication are very complementary and much more about iterative process engineering than any specific software.

is a book that explains general characteristics of implementation and usage. is not 100% professional. only serves as a reference and ideas for a project of this type that you want to perform. Before buying see well what is your specific need not to spend money unnecessarily. luck and success in this new trend of ecological contruccion and very economical.