Prefabrication experiments - 66 - Habitat MV

The structure versus skin paradigm brought about by the modernization of construction techniques induced building strategies based on component systems disconnecting structural support, thermal insulation, climate control and physical protection. Each system interacted, was co-ordinated and integrated to perform within a coherent whole while its properties and assembly could be optimized for particularized performance and replacement.  Grids, open frames and interchangeable envelope panels were the flagship constituents of these modern methods of designing and building. Customizable kits included exclusive components fabricated to achieve systemic harmonization and to associate the advantages of continuous production with the uniqueness and site specificity required by architecture.

The theories of flexibility, adaptability, variability and the principles of «open building» developed concurrently alongside these kit-of-parts systems targeting spatial and temporal versatility. Particularly common to school building systems developed in the 1950's and 1960’s in most industrialized countries, the continuous production of standardised components was fused with a construction management process that increased productivity, simplified building details, and enhanced systemic relationships between building elements. Each individual building system was defined as a plug-in to an overall building strategy. This systems based theory still typifies the trade-based organization of the present day building industry.

Habitat MV designed by architects Mazery and Valode in 1971 was designed as an industrialized kit-of-parts that employed modular coordination to standardize details and component assembly. The system included options for steel or concrete open frame post and beam structures organized within spans of 4,5 to 5,4 m. The design was instituted on a unit module of 90cm, which regulated dimensional coordination. Planning grids could be square or rectangular. Steel corrugated deck panels were employed for floor structures while Glass fibre reinforced plastic panels of sandwich construction with a urethane core were proposed for the envelope. The profiled and individually shaped panels available in two widths of  90 or 180 cm expressed their modularity and their unit to whole relationship. The profiled sandwich panels also delineated an active wall space that could be employed as shelving or additional interior space. The entire system and its components were bolted together maximizing their potential for change, disassembly and flexibility.

Habitat MV - system axonomteric