Although prefabrication has a long history - the ancient Romans shipped pre-cut stone columns, pediments, and other architectural elements to their colonies in North Africa, where the numbered parts were reassembled into temples - the idea took on a new impetus with the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution.

Makers of Modern Architecture, Volume II: From Le Corbusier to Rem Koolhaas (ed. New York Review of Books, 2013) - ISBN: 9781590177013