Prefabrication experiments - 186 - Exhibition houses - 07 - Rheem houses - the modern prefab house

John Entenza, editor of Arts and Architecture magazine in the early 1940’s, launched The Case Study House Program (1945-62). The design, construction and publication of prototypes promoted the modernist movement in the USA. Influenced by European modernism and its migrating proponents, the California based magazine showcased recognized (Neutra, Soriano, Koenig, Ellwood) and not so recognized architects offering them a virtual loudspeaker for informing the public about new potentials for «post-war» living and «good design». CSH 8, 16, 22 remain the program’s icons. Although only 13 of the prototypes were built, it could be argued that the program’s influence on the ideal of architecture’s industrial production was long lasting. Steel, off the shelf components, new materials, modular coordination, transparency and the open plan were only a few of the modernist tenants that were put on display and visited by over 400 000 people during the program’s run. 

An interesting example of the mass-produced tract dwelling, the California established Rheem company operating in the early 1960s, argues for a potential link between the Case Study House Program and their house construction system. The company’s steel house platform proposed a compact strategy including some of the emblematic components of the case study houses; horizontal lines, clear distinction of serve and served spaces, ground floor living datum and exposed steel components and elements. Employing light steel stressed skin construction for the walls, the raft reinforced concrete foundation slab anchored the house to its site. The house’s central factory-made component, which facilitated on-site construction was a 9-foot (2.7m) by 36-foot (16.2m) service core which included a kitchen, 2 baths, equipment and links to adjacent spaces. Once the core was placed on the foundation the other spaces were simply built around the core. The dwelling’s options included three roof shapes. The folded plate roof, illustrated below, expresses the roof as the very basic function of a dwelling. Its dynamic accordion shape anchored to a steel skeletal structure gives it an almost fleeting aesthetic, linking the house to the horizon.  The system’s simple components, structure, core and skin demonstrate a precisely modernist view of mass-produced housing.

Rheem house components