SDC Director, Ryan E. Smith, discussed the history and future of prefabricated building construction in an interview with the Pacific Northwest Inlander.
Rather than framing a house bit by bit on site, prefabricated building construction, or prefab, refers to projects where different elements are constructed in a factory before being brought to the building site. According to Ryan, “Taking advantage of machines to build our houses isn’t necessarily new,” but the conditions for implementing prefab construction are changing:
“Labor has increased in cost, and the availability of labor to build homes is not there. It’s a real problem…now people are saying, ‘Wow, this idea of prefabrication could really fly economically.’” ―Ryan Smith
Read the full article: Prefab construction could be having a renaissance, and WSU’s Ryan Smith is at the forefront
Photo by Jacob Jones for The Pacific Northwest Inlander.