In the April Metropolis Magazine Peter Hall reviews Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake’s Refabricating Architecture. The book is basically about why the building industry is still so inefficient with everything done on site by different contractors generally in sequential order, if in so many other industries technology and productivity have made them more efficient. The authors produce several of their own examples as to why it doesn't work, mainly the complex intersections of building codes, trade unions, liability, etc. They also have several success stories.
Something occurred to me when reading this review. What would prefabrication and efficiency mean to a nation that seems to depend on the inefficiency and labor intensiveness of construction. Housing starts and major construction projects are often given as (at least temporary) signs of increased economic activity and sources of jobs. But what if construction didn't require that many people.