Prefabrication experiments - 85 - The Architects Collaborative and housing prototypes

The strong relationship between housing, architecture and prefabrication founded on the principles of industrialization, notably mass-production, urbanisation and commercialization defined modernity in architecture. The modern architect inspired, strived and searched for innovative housing types that combined industry, architecture and a new willingness to serve. Together with Frank Loyd Wright's Usonian homes to Alar Aalto's small wood houses in collaboration with Ahlström, architects transformed the practise from its elitist heritage based on underwriting kings, emperors and the clergy into a profession that helped conceptualize and redefine the industrial city and its necessary constituents. The modern architect was as much a philosopher as he was a designer.

The figurehead of the profession’s social renewal and the search for an equitable solution to the housing problem was Walter Gropius. His early designs for Copper houses, his 1924 manifesto on the housing industry and his later collaborations with Konrad Wachsmann explored industrialized but variable systems for building. His American influence evolved from his role at the German Bauhaus, his prominence at Harvard and eventually led to a collaborative studio founded with seven young American architects. The Architects Collaborative (TAC) founded on Gropius’ social vision helped the group become an important part of modernism in the USA. Among a great variety of mandates, TAC developed master plans for Six Moon Hill and Five fields. The two housing developments in Lexington, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, were to elucidate the potential relationship between simple low-cost designs and the spatial quality that had become synonymous with the modernist tenet.   

The master plans based on the utopian ideals of the garden suburb included a central communal space. The prototype houses were aimed squarely at the post-war American suburban family. The emphasised relationship between indoor common areas and outdoor family space made these small homes unambiguously modern. Although not completely prefabricated, most designs were based on the use of industrialized components and a standard twelve-foot by twelve-foot modular spatial volume, which was combined into numerous arrangements. The houses designed, built and sold by TAC brought them total control as the developer in order to harmonize all project procedures. The standard wood framed structures kept costs comparable to other developments and the simple detailing celebrated Gropius’ practical approach to construction.

House in Five Fields

Prefabrication experiments - 84 - BoKlok by Ikea

The marketing, commercialization, design, production and distribution of prefabricated housing units engenders a multifaceted puzzle that has often resulted in either marginal commercial success or more often in complete commercial failure. The companies that have succeeded in bringing a bulk production strategy to housing construction are to be commended for enduring in a market sector weighed down by one-off replicas that are built conventionally and sometimes lack regard for both design and construction quality. As Colin Davies observed in his book, The Prefabricated Home, only about twenty percent of housing is the result of a design process.

The difficulty of bringing some type of standardisation to architecture has produced many experiments both by architects and industry. However, housing has remained an exercise in customization built on the light standardisation of doors, windows, kitchens, fixtures, etc. It seems that to attain substantial prefabrication of manufactured units, knowledge of the construction industry must be combined with knowledge of mass marketing and commercialization. This union of multiple fields would surely be a major differentiating asset. In 1996, the marriage of Skanska, a large multinational construction company, with Ikea, would make for a formidable team toward mass-producing dwellings. Ikea proposed this partnership as a strategy to bring instant construction credibility to their product, which was sold in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and most recently in the UK. 

Ikea’s take on industrialised housing, the BoKlok modules are a result of this marriage aimed to bring the benefits of factory production to the low-cost housing market. The original objective was to allow Ikea's successes in furniture and product design to percolate into mainstream housing design. Each module is factory produced as a standard volumetric unit and then delivered on site. The BoKlok offers standard modules for terrassed and multifamily dwellings and is geared toward demonstrating that smaller is better when it comes to design and to controlling our environmental footprint. The Ikea modules are certainly recognizable as Ikea on the inside but seem to lack the same inventiveness on the outside. The BoKlok system has achieved marginal success but can been largely discussed as yet another unsuccessful attempt to bridge the gap between housing, production and design.

From BoKlok catalogue

Prefabrication experiments - 83- Reinforced concrete and the waffle slab

One of the enduring themes of modernity in architecture is the open plan. Le Corbusier’s DOM-INO system (1914) is still emblematic of this concept in architecture. The flat slab construction elucidated by DOM-INO was developed by structural engineers at the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th century. Julius Kahn patented a reinforced concrete slab in 1903. The open plan, a result of new building techniques, was the architectural expression of horizontal liberated space. This revolution completed the progress from wall-based architecture to skeletal see-through architecture. The open post and slab also yielded countless precast systems of components geared to easily juxtaposing pre-made elements toward an infinitely variable architecture.

The steel, wood or concrete post and beam skeleton symbolized the modern open plan spatial organization, which users could adapt to their evolving needs. As many architects explored this new language of transparency, others turned to the semantic of open-ended building systems. Angelo Mangiarotti, an Italian architect was particularly proficient in developing precast component based systems. From the BRIONA construction system to his U70 system, Mangiarotti combined his talents for design with a passion for industrial production to conceive precast concrete components for panels, posts and beams. Another Italian, Pier Luigi Nervi also showcased industrial components leveraged toward open spaces. His waffle slabs for the Gatti wool factory and the Palazzo del lavorro exemplify the evolution from the simple flat slab to complex prestressed mushroom slabs and fantastically open spaces. 

While architects and engineers explored these component-based systems, many were patented and mass-produced while others remained impractical. The umbrella slab alternately referred to as the mushroom slab developed directly from the flat slab also derived a series of precast systems for building. The US patent - US 3788012 A, incorporated a square or rectangular waffle slab as a column capital supported by a central post or mast. The flat waffle floor mushrooms could be juxtaposed and assembled in orthographic directions both horizontal and vertical. The prefabricated elements could be delivered on site and quickly organize an open structural system based on the principles of the open plan: liberating space, function and envelope aesthetics.

Image from US patent - US 3788012 A

Prefabrication experiments - 82 - TEST by Helmut Schulitz

Whether to accommodate massive prewar population mobilisation in the course of war efforts, or to offer disaster relief or to respond to systemic housing crises, prefabrication and the politics of low cost housing regularly intertwine to stimulate innovative housing strategies and encourage the industrialization of building construction to intensify production. Hyping lower costs, greater accessibility, and improved quality, the dream of a factory made architecture has crossed eras and generations of architects, industrialists and progressive politicians. Operation Breakthrough, in the United States, promoted by President Richard Nixon and Housing Department director George Romney in 1969 was somewhat characteristic of the relationship between politics, housing and industrialization. The program intended to bring the benefits of factory production toward quality housing for low-income families and fuel the production of 26 million new housing units over ten years.

Over 2500 prototypes were built on tests sites throughout the United States. As with previous industrialization experiments, the correlation between material procurement, general demand, unit production and required variability of systems didn't seem to materialize and the breakthrough was limited in its mainstream success.  Although not commercially successful young progressive architects jumped at the opportunity to display innovative architecture.

The T.E.S.T (Team for Experimental Systems and building Techniques) project by Helmut C. Schulitz was conceptualized during Operation Breakthrough as an open system assembled from off the shelf mass-produced components. A counter-proposal to closed, proprietary systems, the modular design based on catalogued steel elements showcased how an intelligent kit of parts could be adapted to diverse needs or contexts. The open-ended proposal did not require a complete overhaul of traditional building culture; it simply aimed to make the design and construction process straightforward. Barton Meyers’ Stelco Catalogue Houses, and Almere House by Benthem Crouwel architects were contemporaneous projects organised on similar ideas. The TEST house designed for the architect by the architect used a simple grid based skeletal framework as a support structure for manufactured panels, windows and all building systems. The strategy displayed the potential variability of open systems. Many mid-century school construction systems were articulated to the use of similar open strategies as a tactic to at once increase efficiency, variability and flexibility.

T.E.S.T house by Helmut Schulitz

Prefabrication experiments - 81 - The core wall by Bensonwood and MIT open-prototype

As societies moved to service commerce after the industrial revolution, buildings became more complex. Building culture evolved into an assembly of disparate manufactured components. In addition users and inhabitants demanded a range of amenities in a climate controlled comfortable environment. This evolution of user needs contributed to an increased number of systems from electrical, to mechanical, to air-conditioning, to heating, and involved their unrelated cablings and distribution. These systems were usually designed, built and commissioned as though their inner workings had no impact on adjacent systems and their relationships evolved into an ever-entangling clutter.

Today’s developing BIM (building information modelling) ideology was founded on the idea that building and coordination of systems had become increasingly complex and somewhat chaotic.  In the history of prefabricated building systems, the service wall, the mechanical core was explored as a way to achieve a clear organisation of systems and their components. The Ingersol Utility Unit proposed by Borg-Warner Corporation of Chicago in 1947 predated today’s building coordination strategies but similarly aimed to simplify on-site construction and infrastructure connections. Arranging systems into well-defined vertical or horizontal paths helps sort out on-site coordination.  Open building theory also supports the orderliness of systems, while considering their distinct life cycles and consequently planning for long-term adaptability and flexibility.

As the construction industry aims for greater productivity, BIM, prefabrication and open-building seem to be attracting both conventional builders and researchers’ interests. Bensonwood homes along with MIT house_n research explored the  corewall as a mechanical hub around which variable building systems could be designed. A similar strategy to that of the motherboard in computer technology, Bensonwood’s hub or corewall is a timber framed service panel, which includes all the house’s complex components and connections. The offsite constructed vertical wall organised for a two-storey building includes access panels to facilitate future retrofitting. The mainstream construction methods employed also avoid the excessively specific proprietary nature of certain mechanical cores that impede future adaptability.  Along with corewall research project Bensonwood home’s approach also includes removable baseboards to simplify cable and electrical distribution, as the baseboard is an easily accessible conduit.  Adapting or adding new technologies becomes fairly simple as all systems for easy replacement or alteration.

The mechanical core or hub