Prefabrication experiments - 22 - Precast concrete (pieces, panels and boxes) in postwar U.S.S.R.

Industrialization of building and construction evolved from the transmission of new technologies and the ensuing urbanization of cities. In the United States the government put the burden directly on private industry to solve the housing crises that accompanied industrialization and urbanization. The single family home was the nucleus of American examination of industrialized building systems. The privatization of housing was a major component of the rapid suburbanization of America.

A parallel challenge arose out of the ashes of World War 2 in the Soviet Union. The U.S.S.R. had lost over a third of its housing. The housing emergency accompanied an economic crisis fuelled by a deteriorating labour force and material shortages. The soviet government planned a colossal program to provide a quality home for each resident. The social program positioned the state as promoter, builder, designer, provider and purchaser. The standardization of industrialized building systems and the collective housing block evolved from a unique government promoted strategy for mass housing in the USSR.

Labour intensive traditional brick building, steel and wood shortages and difficult winter conditions all combined to create an environment conducive to a factory produced precast concrete component based building culture in postwar U.S.S.R. The government set up factories to build pieces (post and beams), panels (wall sub-assemblies) and boxes (completely integrated modules) all in precast concrete based on standardized building plans which optimized housing as an industrial process.

The precast systems offered a limited number of designs. 12 building types (see Industrialized building in the Soviet Union, 1971) and housing units were proposed to optimize production. This Precast culture used concrete's moulding potential to integrate mechanical walls and pre-plumbed partitions. The basic unit of U.S.S.R.’s precast building culture was the modular coordination of components based on a grid used for all housing production. The preferred structural grid for housing projects was 6m x 6m which was modularly coordinated from a 60cm planning grid and a basic 10cm component unit.

The massive scale of standardization produced architecture that reduced demand on qualified labour, reduced construction timelines, optimized costs and offered a greater quality of construction. This standardized building culture although successful at creating large amounts of housing also illustrated one of the challenges of industrialization for building, an often rigid relationship between design, variability and production.

Precast pre-plumbed wall image for Industrialized building in the Soviet Union, 1971