Describing a building or a building method in a catalogue has a
long-rooted tradition in architecture. Architectural treatises from as far back
as the Roman Empire established guidelines and proven methods for the organization
of military camps and stipulated their construction methods. The catalogue of
house plans available at any modern day convenience store developed from this
tradition of sharing knowledge about the built environment. Today these
catalogues are perceived, in the architectural circles at least, as less
significant design, repetitive and impersonal.
The catalogue derived from pattern
books that were used as tools for informing craft and craftsmanship. Used by master carpenters in the 17th
century, pattern books illustrated different types of buildings and their
detailing. The pattern books provided models and attested to their
relevance. The American builder’s
companion (1806) is an example of published and shared building methods in
early America.
The industrialization synonymous with
American building reinforced by the spread of the balloon frame can be
associated with the use of agricultural periodicals illustrating barn building
and fostering a certain building culture.
The infamous Sears Roebuck catalogue of houses is an early 20th
century version of the pattern book that promoted the single-family dwelling as
an accessible dream. Each house illustrated in the catalogue was accompanied by
a textual description, estimation and customizable options. The catalogue completed
the evolution of the pattern book as a commercial and industrial tool.
Although the most famous, the Sears catalogue was not the first of its
kind nor the most industrialized, as each model’s components were simply pre-cut.
The D.N. Skillings and D.B. Flints catalogue of sectional portable buildings,
proposed a primitive industrial building system. The catalogue of varied building
plans proposed a system of panels, standardized on a set module that could be
packed, shipped an assembled with ease. «The
construction of these buildings is so simple that two or three men without
mechanical knowledge or experience in building can set up one of them in less
than three hours and with equal ease the same men can take it down , remove it
to another locality, and rebuild it without additional material.» This excerpt from the catalogue demonstrates the
value already being placed on prefabrication at the time as a flexible and
adaptable approach for providing accessible building types. The catalogue also
exemplifies the beginnings of standardization for building and its potential links
to carpentry and millwork detailing.
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| Pages from the illustrated catalogue |
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