>Seems like the original idea was LEGO-like modular system of components that can be combined into buildings.
Which in itself it is not entirely new and largely pre-dates the advent of computers as we know them today.
In the '80's and '90's there were all sorts of experiments in the field, it was a "trend" explored in many countries, "modular building prefabrication".
I was involved in the time in several projects (and actual constructions) though surely things may have become easier today (thanks to CAD, CAE and new materials/techniques), at the time the results were not as good as hypothized in the patent, aspecially for "civil" buildings.
Specifically there was a definite saving of time in the building phase, BUT the resulting building was either at a "lower" standard/level than a more traditional construction or - to have the same standard/level - the costs were not so much lower.
The base concept has been used for decades in "industrial" buildings, such as factories and warehouses, however those used a much lesser number of different (and simpler) components, and more or less they are anyway always a parallelepiped of some kind.
Simply (and not so surprisingly) the techniques developed at the time for houses/office buildings made only sense in very large scale projects as the cost of (besides constructing them and assembling them) storing, managing and transporting/delivering the components killed the economic savings possible in theory.
If (when) a "build components on demand" scheme and a "continuous flow of production" was possible it did make sense, unfortunately this is not what normally happens in the real world, there were months/years when the production was lower than demand and then for whatever reasons there were months/years with no or very low demand, thus costs of plants ate the savings.
(Thanks for the perspective, that was interesting.)
Btw, modular/semi-modular home construction is a pretty big thing here in Sweden. Seems like most standalone homes are built that way nowadays. I had earlier assumed it was similar elsewhere, but it seems like it isn't dominant in most other places.
I guess our horrible climate makes it nicer/more profitable to build modules in a climate-controlled factory than on a wintery/coldish/raining building site. Contrast that to e.g. California - decent climate all year around. I'm also guessing that our high taxes on work and a lack of a low-paid builder workforce also contributes to making automation of housing module manufacturing worthwhile.
(It's not just one house manufacturing company doing these, there are loads of them around the country; I think the typical size is a couple of hundred people. With lots and lots of automation. Not quite sure why large-scale consolidation hasn't happened yet - I'm guessing it's because these companies tend to be privately/family-owned.)
"About 84% of detached houses in Sweden use prefabricated timber elements, while in developed economies such as the US, Australia and the UK, no more than 5% of permanent housing has any significant prefabrication."
>I guess our horrible climate makes it nicer/more profitable to build modules in a climate-controlled factory than on a wintery/coldish/raining building site. Contrast that to e.g. California - decent climate all year around. I'm also guessing that our high taxes on work and a lack of a low-paid builder workforce also contributes to making automation of housing module manufacturing worthwhile.
Sure, that's part of the reasons, but while smallish, "standalone" homes (1-5 floors) can be (and are actually) prefabricated (particularly if based on timber elements, but not only) the mentioned patent (and the personal experience I reported) was for "large" condo or office type buildings, multi-storey (6 or more floors), with a steel or concrete structure, that however allow (or allowed) the architect to introduce his/her own designs (within limits).
BTW - and as a side note - timber based construction have a lot of issues in many countries where strict fire regulations exist, generally speaking single or few apartments homes "fly below" the requirements, but large condos, office and public buildings would never meet fire standards or - in order to respect them - have an unbearable building overcost when compared to steel/concrete.
But what I was trying to highlight is that while prefabricating allows definitely for faster building (and this is particularly evident in the countries, like your Sweden, where the climate is adverse) the claim (of the patent) to save 30 or 40% of the building costs is hard to believe.
I mean, one thing is an alternative technology, and another one is an alternative technology capable of saving several tens per cent of the building costs.
The usual (traditional) reference for prefabricated houses (I am not in any way affiliated to them) in Europe is the (German) HufHaus (which is in the business by some 100 years or so) :
AFAIK at the end of the day they provide exceptionally well engineered and built products but their cost is on par with (in some cases higher than) a "same level" locally built house.
A key point (that many people seem to forget) which makes me personally (where possible) support the prefabricated home concept is that the quality you can obtain in the factory (because of the "right" environment, because the actual workers are highly specialized in each specific task they do, because each and every detail has been already engineered, tested, failed and re-engineered to near perfection) rarely can be obtained locally, still I never found a big difference costwise.
Yeah, sure, I got the difference between these prefab home modules vs prefab parts for very large buildings. I don't really expect these things to translate into the building of 20+ story office/apartment skyscrapers. Totally different domains.
I think that last paragraph (about specialization vs being a local jack of all trades) has a loth of truth to it.
Having lived in the Swedish outback.. without these modular homes made in factories it's all about your personal connections to local people who can do building work. There is no other way of making sure that your house gets built correctly. This obviously doesn't make for a very dynamic marketplace. People get screwed constantly. (So that's a plus for prefab factories - it's a lot easier to screen their quality than for individual contractors - out of sheer volume of customers.)
Which in itself it is not entirely new and largely pre-dates the advent of computers as we know them today.
In the '80's and '90's there were all sorts of experiments in the field, it was a "trend" explored in many countries, "modular building prefabrication".
I was involved in the time in several projects (and actual constructions) though surely things may have become easier today (thanks to CAD, CAE and new materials/techniques), at the time the results were not as good as hypothized in the patent, aspecially for "civil" buildings.
Specifically there was a definite saving of time in the building phase, BUT the resulting building was either at a "lower" standard/level than a more traditional construction or - to have the same standard/level - the costs were not so much lower.
The base concept has been used for decades in "industrial" buildings, such as factories and warehouses, however those used a much lesser number of different (and simpler) components, and more or less they are anyway always a parallelepiped of some kind.
Simply (and not so surprisingly) the techniques developed at the time for houses/office buildings made only sense in very large scale projects as the cost of (besides constructing them and assembling them) storing, managing and transporting/delivering the components killed the economic savings possible in theory.
If (when) a "build components on demand" scheme and a "continuous flow of production" was possible it did make sense, unfortunately this is not what normally happens in the real world, there were months/years when the production was lower than demand and then for whatever reasons there were months/years with no or very low demand, thus costs of plants ate the savings.