Prefabrication experiments - 4 - The «Eugène Mopin» system for housing

The industrial revolution increased demand for low-cost housing for the masses migrating to these pulsating urban centres. Factories, train stations, exhibition halls, urban markets, were all new building types associated with this economy based on the continuous production of goods.

The «Taylor» model of labor organization also fostered a need for housing a new work force. The increased need for housing, the rapid urbanization, and the exploration of new materials and methods associated with industrialization created a fertile ground for new systems for housing. Modern architecture and its radical dissociation from historic models can be traced to this fertile ground of experimentation.

Materials like steel and concrete associated with the new production capacity were relatively new to the building industry at the end of the 19^th century. The experiments performed on these materials at the turn of the 20^th century were to transform the building culture from on-site building to on-site assembly of off-site produced components.

The experiments performed by builders, architects, engineers, and inventors of the time influenced generations to radically modify their construction strategies. When we analyse certain modern prototypes associated with these radical changes, «LeCorbusier’s Unité d’habitation» or «Mies Van der Rohe’s steel and glass towers» the precedents these experiments were based on are often left out of the analysis as these prototypes were conceived in a vacuum. It is in fact often previous experiments or failures that feed the heuristic nature of building culture.

One of the interesting systems, that proposed an increased industrialization of building was the «Mopin steel and concrete system». Invented by industrialist Eugène Mopin in the early 20^th century, the structural system was based on a grid of light-steel components encased in concrete. The envelope of thin prefabricated concrete panels attached to the steel frame was based on a standard and modular grid. The grid offered a flexible pattern for planning. This rational approach to building offered a very austere vision of mass housing. The system was used in several multi-story buildings in the early 1930’s and was a major par of France’s contribution to the industrialization of building. (see the prefabrication of houses, 1951).

Many of the buildings have since been demolished, as the concrete covering did not offer sufficient fire or corrosion protection for the light steel frame. Although not a success, the Mopin system, offers a view into the genesis of industrialized building and its two important components; the separation of structure and envelope and a grid used as a tool for standardization and modular coordination. These elements used as tools for industrialization of building are also two major components of modern architectural theory.

The «Mopin» system of concrete and steel _ photo from housingprototypes.org

Prefabrication experiments - 3 - «One Week»

Prefabricated housing, modular homes, mobile homes and industrialized building, are terms that often conjure up images of less than aesthetic, poor quality, and cookie cutter neighbourhoods. Today prefab is either associated with these issues or a more marginal modern aesthetic proposed by architects. Sigfried Giedion once wrote that prefabricated housing lacked personalization. Even if all of the houses on a typical block look the same, each individual owner wants to feel that their home is somehow built to their specific needs.

The industrial revolution provided quality products at a lower cost in almost every industry.  Despite this capacity to serve the masses, housing has escaped this fate. Perhaps because of our historical link to self-building, or the pioneer spirit, the house has never been mass-produced. The house as a mass produced object doesn’t repond to our need for anchorage to place. The primitive hut as analysed by Gottfried Semper or Michel Laugier was an anchor to culture, to place, or to history. The industrialized house as pushed forward by Sears Roebuck or even Henry Ford no longer spoke to place. Today’s prefab can be different. Customizable fabrication techniques, adaptable architectural solutions, flexible structural systems all can be invested to create a new type a prefab.

Still today, prefabricated housing or manufactured housing still only garners a 10% market share. Manufactured units still don’t pay any attention to place.  If prefab is to succeed as a business model it needs to change its historical habits and embrace new technologies, new family structures, new demographic patterns. Manufactured housing is still largely based on post-war patterns.

The experiment featured in this article is not really an experiment but a satire on prefab housing, a satire produced in the early 20^th century but that in many ways echoes the prefab industry today. Buster Keaton’s one week is a silent film about a couple that receives a house kit as a wedding gift. The film or more adequately called the «movie» traces the building of this prefab kit. The hilarity of the building of this kit not only portrays a sarcastic take on the manufactured home but also portrays the need for personalization in the home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rpt6cFRkxY

The historic relationship between house building and man, requires some form of interaction, how can the manufacturing process integrate culture, place, and personality? This is a pressing question if prefab architecture is to be a major component of a sustainable building culture.

Frame from - One Week

Frame from - One Week

Prefabrication experiments – 2 - Walter Gropius’ «the expansible house»

As our second experiment in prefab housing, we feature the work of Walter Gropius. Well known for his efforts in founding the German Bauhaus, he immigrated to the US and influenced a generation of young American architects and their positions on mass housing. «The Expansible House» was designed from his collaboration with Konrad Wachsmann another modernist architect brought to the U.S. by the difficulties on the European continent at the time. This collaboration was founded on the mutual belief that better housing was needed to house post-war America. They founded, along with a number of investors, The General Panel Corporation in 1946 for their modular building system known as The Packaged House.

The General Panel Corporation was founded in New York and eventually moved to Burbank California, and Gropius’ work on mass housing helped influence investors for its construction. The company was to make use of aircraft and military technology to produce thousands of homes per year. The company only ended up outputting a few hundred houses, and was never able to compete with the housing moguls like William J. Levitt who produced thousands of low-cost homes form standardized components.

The collaboration between the two architects, although not a commercial success, allows us to enter into Gropius’ vision for the future of mass housing. Based on the ideas of flexibility, adaptability, and customization, his vision was more in tune with contemporary needs. His vision perhaps even foreshadowed N.J. Habraken’s work on mass housing and the invention of open systems (see Supports: an Alternative to Mass Housing).

The Expansible house was to provide a family with a structure that had the potential of growing and adapting to the multiple changes of a family’s life-cycle.  The ideas of flexibility proposed by Gropius and other modern architects of the time anticipated the ever-changing family structures associated with contemporary living. The house Gropius proposed was structured by a system of modular post and beams joined by an articulated joint that could be modified and reconstructed as need be. The General Panel Corporation’s sandwich panels provided the infill to the structural system.

The Expansible House by Walter Gropius