Prefabrication experiments - 39 - Ken Isaac's living structure matrix

«Do it yourself» as a construction methodology and as a tactic for allowing user interaction has been theorized in architecture since the industrial revolution transformed construction. The industrial production of housing altered the relationship between people and their dwellings.  Building, however, still maintains a level of skill and workmanship that can be interpreted by the masses. Undertaking the building of one’s own home is an initiative that is still possible, but is almost unthinkable for any other industrial product.  The factory-made distance between user and device is being challenged by open source methodology and makers that are applying this do it yourself model to industrially produced artefacts in order to give some intellectual ownership back to the individual.

«Architecture without architects» predates man as many cave structures formed by erosion and eventually identified as dwellings had no human authorship.  Since the beginning of time man has assembled, knotted and joined simple materials to identify space and create shelter without any previous instruction other than tradition and necessity. This link to building has maintained the fundamental posture of housing : human and environment interaction.

Seen as a fundamental ingredient for human satisfaction, industrialized building systems producers often offer a potential for consumers to contribute to their dwelling. The customization varies from the basic colour choice to the intricate open systems analogous to the  «Ikea» type systems. The influence of industrialisation, component based building systems, modular coordination, the empowerment of the individual and a counter culture of anti-consumerism was the enigmatic confluence of factors contributing to Ken Isaac’s Living structures.

Based on Isaac’s previous work with industrialized building systems and a long standing interest in the problem of low-cost housing structures, he developed a matrix model design system that integrated diverse scales of spatial organisation from furniture to micro-architecture. Similar to the prevalent modular coordination and systems theory percolating the building industry in the first half of the twentieth century, the matrix was a three-dimensional grid system that defined standardized measurements for basic parts of a grid centred construction system. The structure was more of a conceptual framework for the construction of scalable, variable and adaptable devices for dwelling and working. The basic 24-inch cube founded on stick edges and panel faces could be assembled, stacked and scaled in an infinite number of potential combinations.

From Ken Isaac's building your own living structure