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 20th 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.
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.
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| Frame from - One Week |
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| Frame from - One Week |
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