Prefabricated homes are in use all around the world, as are other prefab structures like garages, carports, and industrial buildings. While many people associate prefabricated homes with low cost and simple designs, it is also an industry that has links with the principles of modern and postmodern architecture. Modern architecture is often concerned with the building of structures with clean and simple lines, as well as the mass production of structures for use in populated modern society. There is something intrinsically futuristic about the idea of prefabrication, a fact which has not gone unnoticed by many modernist and postmodernist architects and designers.

Modern architecture is a movement that is concerned with many things, including the minimal and practical use of materials. This has obvious implications for prefabricated homes, which have a style that is rooted in minimal lines and open spaces. The very production of pref homes is also based on a highly modernist ideal, and rooted in notions of automation, mechanisation, and modernity. While not strictlyy either a modern or postmodern offshoot, the prefab home industry has also been influenced by a number of postmodern principles. Postmodern architecture began as an international style in the 1950s, although most people agree that it did not really become a recognisable force until the 1970s. While there are many aspects and principles of postmodern architecture, it is the philosophy of functional and formalised shapes and spaces that mostly influences the modern industry of prefabrication.

While most of the prefabricated home industry is concerned primarily with practicality, affordability, and form, there are a number of designer prefab homes that pay much more attention to style. The use of modern materials and the modular nature of many prefab homes has also been influenced by modernist architecture, as have the simple lines, basic shapes, and manufacturing principles. As prefabricated homes become more popular around the world, including in nations like the United States, Canada, and Australia, more and more innovative designers and architects are likely to have an influence on the future of the prefab home industry.