Prefabricated and modular housing — the idea of manufacturing homes in controlled factory environments and assembling them on-site — had been a recurring answer to the housing affordability crisis for most of the twentieth century, and by 2011 was experiencing a significant revival as construction costs and housing prices reached levels that excluded growing portions of the population from homeownership in major cities worldwide.

The core economic argument for prefab was compelling: factory production offered quality control, labor efficiency, reduced material waste, and shorter construction timelines that could theoretically deliver homes at substantially lower cost than traditional site-built construction. The manufacturing sector had driven down costs through standardization and scale in virtually every other durable goods category; why not housing?

Several factors had historically prevented prefab from achieving its promise. Zoning and building codes were often written with traditional construction in mind and created barriers for modular approaches. Transport costs for large modules could erode factory efficiency gains. Consumer perception — the association of prefab with low-quality postwar housing estates — created market resistance even when the actual product had improved dramatically.

By 2011, a new generation of modular housing companies was attacking these barriers with better design, improved materials, and more sophisticated marketing. Firms in Japan, Scandinavia, and the United States were producing modular homes that were architecturally distinguished and more energy-efficient than most site-built alternatives.

Whether the sector could scale to make a meaningful dent in urban housing supply remained uncertain. The barriers were structural as well as technical, and the construction industry's institutional resistance to disruption was formidable.