Prefabrication experiments - 164 - Building Kits - 05 - The «Beachcomber» as a kit of canonical architectural components

Producing or making architecture from a kit of parts normally refers to the dimensionally coordinated components that facilitate or ensure an easy construction or assembly. A historic and interpretational view of the architectural kit underlines its direct link to industrialisation but perhaps more interestingly reveals how the kit strategy defined the spatial and organisational components that underpinned modern architecture.  Modern axioms such as the separation of served and service spaces developed from new functions and their centralization within spaces. Repetitive use of standardized pieces and modular grids or patterns contributed to a brand of kit language. The elements of modernisms that sought to reform traditions were linked to a rational use of pieces and space. Post-war architecture’s fascination with kit building produced many experiments, which applied a standardized approach for the masses uniting accessibility in matters of cost with the quest for architectural quality. 

The «Beachcomber» is an Australian expression of the modernist kit aesthetic applied to architecture for the masses. Developed as an affordable post war housing type, its basic components relate to a simple modern syntax combined to overlook adjacent landscapes. The Beachcomber’s stilts, vertical core and airy floating volume relate to the canonical Villa Savoye while using accessible aluminum cladding and insulated panels. A result of a partnership between Land Lease Homes (a post-war initiative in Australia to offer low-cost mortgages) with Le Corbusier inspired architect Nino Sydney, several hundred demonstration «beachcombers» were built. They inspired kit houses by the department of War service in 1964 and a Mark II display home in 1961.  The architecturally robust statement of floating over a magnificent beach adjacent property is timeless.

The perched massing of a covered space delineated by a living space volume allowed the beachcomber to have natural ventilation and work as a multifunctional canopy for the access spaces below. The three basic components of a Beachcomber, stilts, canopy and vertical core simply adapted to any site brought the spatial quality of an fresh Piano Nobile to the middle class. The simple box frame combined with platform construction made the beachcomber an unpretentious build, combining the spatial qualities of modern architecture with the most accessible and straightforward building methods: a perfect kit.

advertisement for the Beachcomber