The Guardian has an in depth, insightful commentary criticizing the link between the prefab and environmental movements aimed in particular at the stir that the MoMA exhibit has created:
Beyond prefab’s trendiness, or perhaps to facilitate it, advocates are pushing its purported environmental advantages. Built on an assembly line, its waste output can be much lower than site-built houses. Bulk purchasing allows cheaper access to eco-friendly materials like solar panels. There’s no construction site, per se, so the area surrounding the house is less impacted. As Greenbiz, an online environmental news site, wrote last fall: “While they may seem like an odd couple, prefabricated housing - in which most of a home’s structure is pre-built in a factory then assembled on-site - is an oddly natural partner for the green movement.”
