Buildings have been built in one place and reassembled in another throughout history. This was especially true for mobile activities, or for new settlements. Замок Эльмина, the first форт рабов in Западная Африка, was also the first European prefabricated building in Африка к югу от Сахары-.1: 93 In Северная Америка, in 1624 одно из первых зданий at Кейп-Энн was probably partially prefabricated, and was rapidly disassembled and moved at least once. Джон Ролло described in 1801 earlier use of portable hospital buildings in the Вест-Индия.2 Possibly the first advertised prefab house was the "Manning cottage". A London carpenter, Henry Manning, constructed a house that was built in components, then shipped and assembled by British emigrants. This was published at the time (advertisement, South Australian Record, 1837) and a few still stand in Australia.3 One such is the Дом собраний друзей, Аделаида.45 The peak year for the importation of portable buildings to Australia was 1853, when several hundred arrived. These have been identified as coming from Ливерпуль, Бостон and Сингапур (with Chinese instructions for re-assembly).6 In Барбадос the движимый дом was a form of prefabricated building which was developed by emancipated slaves who had limited rights to build upon land they did not own. As the buildings were moveable they were legally regarded as движимое имущество.7
In 1855 during the Крымская война, after Флоренс Найтингейл wrote a letter to Времена, Изамбард Кингдом Брюнель was commissioned to design a prefabricated modular hospital. In five months he designed the Больница Ренкиой: больница на 1 000 пациента с инновациями в области санитарии, вентиляции и туалета со смывом.8 Fabricator Уильям Исси constructed the required 16 units in Глостерские доки, shipped directly to the Дарданеллы. Используемый только с марта 1856 года по сентябрь 1857 года, он снизил уровень смертности с 42 процентов до 3,5 процентов.
The world's first prefabricated, pre-cast panelled apartment blocks were pioneered in Ливерпуль. A process was invented by city engineer Джон Александр Броди, whose inventive genius also had him inventing the football goal net. The tram stables at Walton in Ливерпуль followed in 1906. The idea was not extensively adopted in Britain, however was widely adopted elsewhere, particularly in Eastern Europe.
Prefabricated homes were produced during the Золотая лихорадка in the United States, when kits were produced to enable Californian prospectors to quickly construct accommodation. Homes were available in kit form by mail order in the United States in 1908.9
Prefabricated housing was popular during the Вторая мировая война due to the need for mass accommodation for military personnel. The United States used Квонсетные хижины as military buildings, and in the United Kingdom prefabricated buildings used included Хижины Ниссена and Ангары Bellman. 'Prefabs' were built after the war as a means of quickly and cheaply providing quality housing as a replacement for the housing destroyed during блиц. The proliferation of prefabricated housing across the country was a result of the Комитет Берта and the Закон о жилье (временном размещении) 1944 г.. Under the Министерство работ Сделано на аварийной фабрике housing programme, a specification was drawn up and bid on by various private construction and manufacturing companies. After approval by the MoW, companies could bid on Council led development schemes, resulting in whole estates of prefabs constructed to provide accommodation for those made homeless by the War and ongoing расчистка трущоб.10 Almost 160,000 had been built in the UK by 1948 at a cost of close to £216 million. The largest single prefab estate in Britain11 was at Белль Вейл (South Liverpool), where more than 1,100 were built after World War 2. The estate was demolished in the 1960s amid much controversy as the prefabs were very popular with residents at the time.
Prefabs were aimed at families, and typically had an entrance hall, two bedrooms (parents and children), a bathroom (a room with a bath) — which was a novel innovation for many Britons at that time, a separate toilet, a living room and an equipped (not установлен in the modern sense) kitchen. Construction materials included steel, aluminium, timber or асбест, depending on the type of dwelling. The aluminium Тип В2 prefab was produced as four pre-assembled sections which could be transported by lorry anywhere in the country.12
The Universal House (pictured left lounge diner right) was given to the Чилтернский музей под открытым небом after 40 years temporary use. The Mark 3 was manufactured by the Universal Housing Company Ltd, Rickmansworth.
The United States used prefabricated housing for troops during the war and for GIs returning home. сборный classrooms were popular with UK schools increasing their rolls during the бэби-бум of the 1950s and 1960s.
Many buildings were designed with a five-ten year life span, but have far exceeded this, with a number surviving today. In 2002, for example, the city of Бристоль still had residents living in 700 examples.13 Many UK councils have been in the process of demolishing the last surviving examples of Second World War prefabs in order to comply with the British government's Стандарт достойных домов, который вступил в силу в 2010 году. Однако в последнее время наблюдается возрождение сборных методов строительства, чтобы компенсировать текущую нехватку жилья в Соединенном Королевстве.