Prefabrication experiments - 178 - Geometries - 09 - Fritz Haller's mini, midi, maxi

The systems approach to building, creating a whole from the rigorous organisation and coordination of disparate components is one of the enduring principles of architectural modernity applied to building construction. To this day buildings are organised and assembled through systemic and dimensional coordination. The four-inch-cube building module proposed by Bemis in the early twentieth century illustrated how this basic geometric unit could establish a geometric harmony throughout a building’s organization and its parts. The unit to whole relationship based on the smallest dimensions regulating the largest components’ dimensions inspired architects to define coordinated languages or syntaxes based on multiples. 

One of the most convincing attempts at defining agile building systems through modularity was proposed by Swiss architect Fritz Haller. Well known for his association with manufacturer USM for a line of modular furniture, Haller applied his modernist education to develop a scalable construction system applicable to three building types in the early 1960s and 1970s. The mini for houses and residential lightweight construction, the midi for intermediate commercial grade construction and a long spanning MAXI version of the component based system for large structures. The three skeletal steel systems employed a similar approach. Prefabricated elements for columns, girders, main beams and panels based on a modular 60cm / 120 cm grid normalized construction details and simplified coordination while permitting multiple and adaptable functional and spatial patterns. Haller also applied this integrated vision to city structures idealizing as Konrad Wachsmann did in the USA a type of lightweight structuralism adapted to any use. 

The mini, midi and maxi systems were based on a similar square grid. Only the systems’ components were scaled in relation to increasing spans. The efficient two-way space frames, constructed from folded plate sections made use of optimal structural sections to create lightweight trusses with open webs. The unrestricted floor plates simplified systemic coordination though the structural members’ open webs. Passing wires, ducts or conduits was as adaptable as the systems planning; Each system could be changed throughout the building’s life-cycle. An example of open planning applied to buildings Haller developed theses scalable systems to address a need for systemic adaptability to give buildings the capacity to evolve.

Fritz Haller from furniture to cities