Why did Walter Gropius support prefabricated building parts?

Walter Gropius supported the use of prefabricated building parts and on-site assembly because he believed that machine production was a necessary precondition for modern design. As a member of the Deutscher Werkbund, Gropius sought to align creative design with industrial processes to address the social needs of an industrial society.123

By embracing these techniques, Gropius aimed to move away from the production of individual luxury items for a wealthy elite, instead focusing on creating functional, aesthetically pleasing, and standardized objects for mass society. While he accepted the inevitability of mechanization, he maintained that it was the responsibility of the artistically trained designer to "breathe a soul into the dead product of the machine," ensuring that industrial architecture remained a human-centered endeavor.21