The prefab modular home has come a long way since its early days as a temporary housing solution during World War II. It’s come so far that New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (MoMA) is devoting a three-month-long exhibit to prefab history, including the construction of five prefab homes in the museum’s west lot in midtown Manhattan.

The modular modern art display, which MoMA has dubbed “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,” doesn’t stop there. In the MoMA gallery, visitors can learn about 84 architectural projects from the last two centuries, thanks to an encyclopedic display of modular history, including films, models, blueprints, photos and marketing materials. The exhibit opened on July 20 and runs through October 20.

As you’d expect from a MoMA exhibit, the modular homes on display in the west lot are decidedly, well, modern. That includes a 76-square-foot micro compact home and an MIT-designed “Instant House” proposed as a solution for the rapid reconstruction of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. At right is a rendering of the “Cellophane House” also on display.

The MoMA homes may bear little resemblance to the more traditional homes created by Excel Homes and most other modular manufacturers, but they do have a few things in common (besides their off-site modular construction). Regardless of size or shape, modular construction is modern, durable, innovative and, most importantly, here to stay.