The production of architecture from prehistory to today encompasses two
archetypes: Massive (masonry, wet) construction and filigree (skeletal, dry) construction,
both evolved after industrialization into a systematized form of off-site
production for on-site assembly. Within the framework of this evolution, modular
building coordination based on uniform multiples of building units percolated
into building culture and helped standardize, customize and optimize on-site construction.
This on-site optimization reduces demand for factory produced complete building
systems. On-site builders do recognize the value added nature of certain
increasingly industrialized components that further improve on-site
construction. The wall panel, somewhere between massive and filigree
construction, is a surface component with the structural capacity of being used
vertically or horizontally to create a variable on-site construction system.
The wall panel is increasingly prevalent even in traditional on-site stick
frame construction.
Heinrich Le Roche is an inventor who patented a system for housing based
on panel construction in 1932. Proposed as a factory produced panel system structured
around a corridor core, the panels were to be bolted together in their corners
relying on the monocoque or stressed skin nature of the panel construction. The
surface panels used standardized unit dimensions and required only dry
construction techniques for on-site assembly. The dry construction also allowed
for easy disassembly improving the system’s adaptability over time.
Multiple panels bolted together produced a boxlike module linked to a
linear corridor. Although invented for variability, the system’s flexibility was
limited to a linear composition. La Roche's system was a bearing wall composition
in which the corridor and the exterior wall supported the interior floor and
ceiling panels. This organization offered multiple free spans for adjacent
corridor rooms. The objective was to offer maximum flexibility and ease of
assembly. The corridor as a linear core element has many advantages in terms of
structural simplicity, clear circulation and egress efficiency. However, it
creates a very rigid composition that in La Roche's view could be avoided by
arranging the adjacent rooms in a variable manner.
Today’s structural insulated panels or stressed skin factory framed
stick built panels are recognized for ease of use, ease of integration, and
variability. Their open form of construction allows for any configuration and
their flat-pack nature offers transport flexibility.
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| Patent Drawing by Heinrich La Roche see http://www.google.com/patents/US1886962 |
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