"The term prefabricated, understood in the most classical sense, leads us to think about a building system where the essential parts of the architecture are sent in a form already assembled or partially assembled (or manufactured) to the site on which the finished piece will be raised. Once there, it will be necessary only to join and anchor the parts.

Although this is still the basic principle, owing to the evolution of contemporary programs or to the very characteristics of this same system, prefabrication in architecture today speaks rather of a series of highly varied conditions that bring us new possibilities of inhabiting our world. Prefab construction is no longer understood only as a construction method which we may depend on simply as a way of saving time and money on a project.

It is also a typological alternative that resolves the most complicated situations and programs, those like fold-up (and fold-down) offices, family growth, refuges for inveterate travelers, itinerant exhibits."--BOOK JACKET.