Though much attention has been centered on the prefabrication of architecture there has been virtually no pointed discussion on the influence and importance of prefabrication within the interior environment. A review of the literature revealed that whereas a paucity of explicit research has focused on this subject, there is however an abundance of evidence regarding the prefabrication of the interior environment dating back thousands of years and most significantly from the late nineteenth century to the present. As such, the historical topic of prefabricated interior design does, in fact, exist and merits directed exploration. This article defines the topic and develops the historical context of prefabricated interior design with the critical discussion addressing its development from the late nineteenth century to the present. In the prefabrication of the interior, one can look to distinct elements or prefabricated wholes. The conception of these elements or constructs has often informed construction on the greater scale of architecture. Prefabricated interior constructs have defined interior space and have informed the language of prefabricated architecture. It has been these very elements of interiority that have been fundamentally crucial in the development of prefabricated technologies. The screen (a planar construction), used to divide interior space, is arguably the first prefabricated architectural element. With the advent of the screen, followed by the construct of the module, and then the unit, the elements of the interior have been driving forces in the technologies of prefabrication of architecture since the inception of prefabrication.
