Prefabrication experiments - 8 - Thorncliffe Cast-iron houses

The late eighteenth century brought major changes to Great Britain. The industrial revolution began shifting work from craftsmen to the regimented division of labour in factories supported by greater involvement of steam driven machines in the production process. One of the most significant changes was the use of Iron in construction. The replacement of coal in iron production, the invention of the Bessemer converter and the use of the rolling mill, advanced iron production from marginal forge based production to iron mills capable of rolling profiled beams and shaped sheets in continuous production. This transformation of traditional forms of construction to experimental iron based kit-of-parts construction is well documented. The most instrumental example is Joseph Paxton’s Chrystal Palace.

The Chrystal Palace (1851) exposed large spans with minimal material use as well as component-based construction. The building introduced the kit-of-parts as an overall system of construction, coherent from factory to on-site assembly. This coherence contributed to the beginning of a systemic and modular approach to architecture and influenced builders to accept iron as the material for modern construction.

Iron and cast-iron, as used in the Chrystal Palace, were since the invention of the steam engine, cheaper to produce in comparison to traditional building materials.  Early production methods allowed the precise -and continuous manufacturing of diverse structural members and sheets. The new methods of production of iron and steel helped stimulate the invention of many housing experiments in Great Britain.

The Thorncliffe Cast-iron Houses are one of the remarkable systems to come out of Great Britain during this period of exploration. Only a few hundred were built as a means of addressing the housing shortage and the higher costs of traditional methods. This system is unique as it is analogous to massive construction. The cast-iron plates perform as structure and skin, mimicking stack-bond brick construction, optimising the compressive strength of cast-iron. The cast-iron panels could be mass-produced shipped on-site and assembled in a week. The panels were produced with a patented flange that facilitated assembly and created a watertight seal.

The envelope was composed of the cast-iron panels covered in a cement based enamel covering on the outside and interior walls were of traditional wood construction. What makes this project of particular interest is the modular composition imposed by the panels. Each panel is recognizable on the house creating a unit to whole relationship that gives the project an aesthetic unity foreshadowing the modular coordination of building components.

Add from San Jose evening news, May 12, 1928.http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1977&dat=19280509&id=hTAiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EqQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1485,3841256