Prefabrication experiments - 55 - Logikit

The mass production paradigm that characterized early 20th century prefabrication induced building systems based on repetition and stringent modular grids. Industrialized building largely connoted a lack of systemic variability. Within this pattern of continuous production, industry and architecture looked at prefabrication and industrialisation from two diverging points of view: Industry from efficiency and architecture from universal variability. The two diverging viewpoints contributed to two accounts of prefabrication. 

The exploration of open systems and universal space by modernist architects challenged the basic mass production model with component systems based on modular coordination rather than complete factory produced volumes. The continuous production of integrated pieces and panels would allow an architecturally designed standardized specificity to deal with architecture’s essential cultural content.

Walter Gropius, a master of modern architecture and a politically charged architect, envisioned industrial production that served quality architecture for the masses. His writings and teachings on mass production and industrial building influenced a generation of modernists. Manufacturing could be leveraged toward individually designed types. His theories prefigured today's open building theories and in this respect foreshadowed John Habraken's infrastructure versus infill conceptual model of collective housing. This open building framework induced a plethora of Concrete skeletal systems.

Although only one prototype was produced, Logikit was somewhat emblematic of these variable industrialized building systems. Designed for a 1973 competition for «construction kits» in France, this concrete post and beam frame system was articulated to user interaction within a rigorous modular frame. 

Infill of the skeletal frame could be industrialized, architecturally designed or conceived from off the rack building products. The dry assembled parts included a cruciform elaborately shaped node element to which posts and beams could be bolted. The simple orthogonal based grid system was designed to be deployed horizontally or vertically for single family or multiple family dwelling. An example of the universal modular coordination present in most of its contemporaneous experiments, the necessary infrastructure and service elements were absent.  The Logikit lacked the potential for wiring, ducts and systems coordination, which were becoming a large part of 20th century building construction and its amenities. The skeletal frame in this respect exemplifies a recurring problem with prefabrication: the lack of a totally integrated building strategy.

The Logikit components