Prefabricated building components are
available in closed or open systems. The open systems are typically offered for
structural framing and often leave other building components’ integration
equally open and sometimes ignored. Closed proprietary systems, modular-building
units for example, strive to completely integrate building systems leaving only
certain infrastructure connections for on-site construction. The proprietary
systems are by definition intellectually hermetic. The history of
prefabrication has not been very kind to the more experimental proprietary
systems as they have proven either to be one off trials or commercial failures.
Proprietary closed systems also have the drawback of little flexibility or
adaptability over time given the integrated and patented nature of their
designs. However the creative drive associated with certain systems’ inventions
or inventors underlines the relationship between prefabrication and modern
architecture’s spirit.
Prolific as an inventor, architect,
engineer and industrial craftsman, Buckminster R. Fuller is synonymous with the
inventive spirit of the American modernist movement. Along with his writings and
thoughts on architecture, ecology and industry, Fuller created a vast matrix of
strategies for prefabricated building systems and components: from the ordinary
DDU (Dymaxion Deployment Unit) of which many were shipped overseas to help in
the war effort, to the extraordinary (geodesic domes) and from the exploratory
(Undersea Island) to the practical (synergetic building construction). The
optimal use of resources characterized his work. His transformation of the
ready-made grain silo into a workable housing unit in response to the war
effort exemplifies the driving forces behind Fuller’s vision for housing and
architecture.
Looking to optimize the industrial
potential of his era, Fuller’s experiments in housing often involved technical
hybrids from adjacent industries. This was the case of the aluminum and
aviation industries for the Wichita house and was certainly the case for his
proposal of the prefabricated bathroom pod. He researched and invented an
integrated service pod that could be plugged
into a larger construction system prefabricated or not. Proposed in rolled
sheet steel construction similar to the automobile technologies progressing at
the time, the bathroom included all plumbing and electrical connections. The
plumbing fixtures were also to be formed with the sheet material. Integrated
into his Dymaxion series of
experiments, the ergonomic concept examined minimal material use in order to
reduce costs. Fuller’s objective was to provide a high-tech low-cost
alternative to the relatively new building problem of coordinating services.
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| Buckminster Fuller patent drawing for the bathroom pod see patent US 2220482 A |
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