Prefabrication experiments - 58 - Triedro : concrete compositions

^{Reinforced concrete and manufactured building systems share an industrial lineage: the straightforward engineering process of pouring concrete over steel lattices encased in reusable forms lent itself well to continuously producing panels, pieces or even sections of buildings. Concrete’s strength and durability combined with a repetitive industrial production model yielded many housing systems. The factory-finished surface for structural floors, walls and ceilings made reinforced concrete an ideal solution for the modern multi-unit building. The components promoted site assembly with minimal waste as many subsystems such as plumbing or electrical wiring could be included in the factory and furthermore in the moulds. This systemic integration was, however, the exception and not the rule.}

^{Concrete’s strength and aesthetic honesty exemplified modern architecture’s values of function versus form and freedom in spatial organisation. Le Corbusier's Dom-ino (1909) interpreted this material honesty accompanied by a need for programmatic variability. Combining the rational and the irrational in architectural compositions defines architecture and industrialization’s conflict; customization in response to individual needs versus the efficiency of factory production. Open building theory was to a certain degree developed in reaction to this ideological conflict.}

^{Triedro is a patented reinforced concrete building system developed in the early 1970’s and presently marketed by Zecca (see zecca.com). Zecca produces industrialized building solutions. Triedro was a building block construction set intended to rationalize production to four or five spatial components to showcase variable combinations and organisations of simple parts. The system included three partially enclosed volumes made up of a floor and ceiling plane and three vertical wall planes organized in three different patterns. These partially enclosed modules were the system’s basic elements for rooms, living spaces or any other served space. Enclosed box unit spaces for services complemented the scheme. These basic volumes informed vertical and horizontal clusters. Stacking was the core architectural strategy and resulted in largely repetitive arrangements.}

^{Established on a modular grid of 2,5m in width, 7,5m in length and 2,95 m in height, the stacked volumetric modules constituted the structural and architectural framework of a variety of space types and uses. The Triedro logistics are analogous to a toy construction set that includes six bricks and one assembly pattern. Still advertised today, Triedro endeavours to fuse efficiency of panel and box construction with architects’ skilful composition.}

Triedro components form zecca.com