Buildings have been built in one place and reassembled in another throughout history. This was especially true for mobile activities, or for new settlements. ایلمینا کیسل, the first غلام قلعہ in مغربی افریقہ, was also the first European prefabricated building in ذیلی-صحارا افریقہ.1: 93 In شمالی امریکہ, in 1624 پہلی عمارتوں میں سے ایک at کیپ این was probably partially prefabricated, and was rapidly disassembled and moved at least once. جان رولو described in 1801 earlier use of portable hospital buildings in the ویسٹ انڈیز.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 فرینڈز میٹنگ ہاؤس، ایڈیلیڈ.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 لیورپول, بوسٹن and سنگاپور (with Chinese instructions for re-assembly).6 In بارباڈوس the چیٹل ہاؤس 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 چیٹل.7
In 1855 during the کریمین جنگ, after فلورنس نائٹنگیل wrote a letter to اوقات, اسامبارڈ کنگڈم برونیل was commissioned to design a prefabricated modular hospital. In five months he designed the رینکیوئی ہسپتال: ایک 1,000 مریضوں کا ہسپتال، جس میں صفائی، وینٹیلیشن اور فلشنگ ٹوائلٹ میں اختراعات ہیں۔8 Fabricator ولیم ایزی constructed the required 16 units in گلوسٹر ڈاکس, shipped directly to the Dardanelles. صرف مارچ 1856 سے ستمبر 1857 تک استعمال کیا گیا، اس نے شرح اموات کو 42 فیصد سے کم کر کے 3.5 فیصد کر دیا۔
The world's first prefabricated, pre-cast panelled apartment blocks were pioneered in لیورپول. A process was invented by city engineer جان الیگزینڈر بروڈی, whose inventive genius also had him inventing the football goal net. The tram stables at Walton in لیورپول 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 گولڈ رش 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 دوسری جنگ عظیم due to the need for mass accommodation for military personnel. The United States used Quonset جھونپڑیوں as military buildings, and in the United Kingdom prefabricated buildings used included Nissen جھونپڑیوں and بیل مین ہینگرز. 'Prefabs' were built after the war as a means of quickly and cheaply providing quality housing as a replacement for the housing destroyed during بلٹز. The proliferation of prefabricated housing across the country was a result of the برٹ کمیٹی and the ہاؤسنگ (عارضی رہائش) ایکٹ 1944. Under the وزارت کام ایمرجنسی فیکٹری بنا دی گئی۔ 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 کچی آبادی کی منظوری.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 بیلے ویل (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 نصب in the modern sense) kitchen. Construction materials included steel, aluminium, timber or ایسبیسٹوس, depending on the type of dwelling. The aluminium B2 ٹائپ کریں۔ 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 چلٹرن اوپن ایئر میوزیم 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. پریفاب classrooms were popular with UK schools increasing their rolls during the بچے کی تیزی 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 برسٹل 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 ڈیسنٹ ہومز سٹینڈرڈ, which came into effect in 2010. There has, however, been a recent revival in prefabricated methods of construction in order to compensate for the United Kingdom's current housing shortage