Prefabrication experiments - 59 - Modern Structures Inc's circular house kits

For the most part in the history of architecture, dwellings arranged in circular shapes were related to prehistoric, vernacular or mobile shelters: the dry assembled stone «trulli» in Italy, the portable yurt in Central Asia or the snow-packed igloo for harsh Arctic Winters. These traditional forms of housing were shaped by contrasting lifestyles and geographic settings, however their circular shapes demonstrated a parallel focal distinctiveness and an individualized arrangement for land sharing. Beyond these traditional dwellings, the circle’s use in architecture was typically associated with a galactic or sacred relationship between the earth and the heavens. Seamless, complete and infinite, the circle is emblematic of hearth, harmony and placemaking. 

During architecture’s modern and industrial era, architects and manufacturers explored new techniques, new shapes and their potential to revisit and update housing archetypes. The circle related to ancient forms but also severed ties to established classical tradition. Wallace Neff’s bubbles, Buckminster Fuller’s dymaxion, May von Langenau’s miesian round glass house and George Fred Keck’s house of tomorrow for the 1933 international fair held in Chicago are a few experiments that explored the cylinder as a basic shape for dwelling. A combination of pure abstract form, limitless space, horizontal interior and exterior continuity, and simple building systems made these projects exemplary solutions to the mass production model of the early and post-war 20th century. 

Along with the aforementioned examples, Modern Structures Inc’s take on the roundhouse typified the relationship between prefabrication, architecture and the cylindrical shaped building. The «roundhouse» kit offered a modern lifestyle within an atypical shape. The firm's principal partner Leon Meyer appears to have been the roundhouse designer. The circular houses were a small segment of a larger progressive architecture movement synonymous with post-war California. 

The simple wood frame kit of post, beam and panel infill was fundamentally a balloon frame structure organized to emanate from the center to a visually unbounded exterior wall. The pre-cut lumber kit reduced site work and site disturbance. The predominantly transparent circular enclosure plane employed acrylic panels for continuous interior / exterior space while providing a greater insulating factor than single pane glass. Ordered around a central core, the spatial quadrants radiated toward a continuous space articulated to California’s post-war spirit. 

Round House Kit - reference unknown