Modernity in architecture in pre
World War II social and manufacturing reforms evolved into 1960s and 1970s high
modernism. Military technology and the ensuing space race inspired visionary
architecture. Plastic production garnered particular interest to commodify
architecture’s production as it had done for other consumables. Simple to
produce shapes and objects became the source of combinable and coordinated architectural
components. George Candilis proposed the Hexacube in the early 1970s employing
matching and stackable fiberglass reinforced shells to form dwellings. The cube
facilitated clustering while hexagons were used to match cube faces together.
Many such projects developed concurrently
for different scales and different settings. The DO-bausystem in Germany, the Tetrodon
in France, Guy Gérin Lajoie’s modular plastic panels for the Arctic in Canada
and the Ventura and Futuro houses by Matti Suuronen in Finland all employed
similar systems casting fiberglass reinforced plastic components for producing
buildings. Units or panels could simply be snapped or bolted together streamlining
construction. The Hexacube’s basic unit was a moulded half cube, which could be
employed as the upper or lower part of the cube. Each 5 m3 cube was
moulded with half-hexagonal shaped openings, which formed full hexagons when
the half cubes were matched. The hexagon opening acted as the hexacube’s reproductive
organ; their alignment and subsequent affixing made it possible to achieve multiple
arrangements. The openings could be adapted with a series of facades or
functional hexagonal shaped units, varying the Hexacube’s function and
appearance. A series of accessories, rectangular prisms half the size of the cube
programmed by function, hygiene, storage, kitchen or other services, could be
plugged into the basic unit creating an infinite number of patterns and uses. Each
half cube could be piled for efficient delivery, eight deep, as one would stack
plastic utility chairs. The cube’s edges were tapered and chamfered to
facilitate casting and recasting using the same moulds.
Dubigeon Platics produced Candilis
and Anja Blomstedt’s hexacube in 1972. Although only a marginal number of units
were produced, the system showcased a manner in which knowledge transfer from the
plastics industry to architecture made it possible to fabricate objects,
architecture, and cities with similar processes.
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| Hexacube (left); Tetrodon (upper mid); Modular Arctic Houses (upper right); Do-bausystem (lower-mid); Futuro (lower right) |
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