Prefabrication experiments - 7 - « FRAME construction for buildings » patent US1581487

Modern architecture is inseparable from the new materials and methods of the industrial revolution. The new production methods and the continuous development of materials inspired the avant-garde to break free from traditional models of massive construction in favour of the skeletal potentials of concrete and steel. Armed with these new materials and techniques and a willingness to solve the social issues of the urbanisation and industrialisation of society, architects and engineers explored alternatives to traditional building.

This climate of relative enthusiasm was a fertile ground for the invention of new building systems. The number of patents for concrete and steel systems and construction systems requested at the time are a testament to the era’s generative confluence.

Within this context, the potential of «Frame construction» with the greater spans offered by concrete or steel or even in some experiments, hybrids of concrete and steel, instituted the modern open or free plan. The Frame, an evolution of the medieval wooden box frame, is an open form of building. The grid of columns and beams, whether doweled, nailed, welded or bolted together, create an unrestricted structural network.

Unrestricted or open is an expression of the «Frame’s» adaptability to multiple forms of planning: «un plan libre». A free plan is open-ended to suit the needs of the user, or the expression of the architect. The «Frame» construction is an expression of maximum structural results with minimal material use. No structural interior or exterior walls are required. Freedom of interior and exterior expression are the fundamental components of the «plan libre».

Viewed as the material expression of modern society, the Frame construction system is associated with the modern skyscraper, the industrial aesthetic, and the international style. The Frame of concrete, wood or steel maximises the potential for interior space and its pre-fabrication minimises the on-site waste associated with traditional construction methods.

The «open building» research initiative founded on the theories of N.J. Habraken alludes to this type of frame construction as providing a platform onto which coordinated building components could be anchored. The frame is open and receptive to a multitude of possibilities allowing for modular coordination of interchangeable building components maximising potential for adaptability and flexibility over time.

Frame construction for building : see 

http://www.google.com.tr/patents/US1581487