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

Prefabrication experiments - 80 - Weberhaus

Exemplary work has been derived from the relationship between craft, industry and architecture. Modernity in architecture was substantiated by the search for newness through industrial experimentation and a rejection of classic orders. No other country nurtured this relationship as well as Germany. Its industrial development merged its traditional craft culture with design talent to grow a manufacturing ethos that still engineers some of the most precisely factory-made buildings. This industrial tradition goes back to early 20th century companies such as Braune and Roth or Wöhr Bros., both produced houses in steel skeletal systems. Christof and Unmack is another example of early production but with the use of a timber-framed structure. These examples of precise and quality controlled manufacturing contributed to greater social acceptance and allowed the prefab industry to grow into a major component of German building culture.  

Weberhaus is a contemporary producer of manufactured houses established on a strong German tradition. Founded by Hans Weber in 1960, the company is somewhat emblematic of the union between craft and industry in the German prefab housing market. The company boasts a total production of 33 000 houses in the last 55 years. In addition to creative designs such as their collaboration with Bauart Architects for the Weberhaus Option, Weberhaus emphasizes the need for a high quality building envelope in order to achieve sustainable architecture.

The company utilizes an automated process to assemble stick-framed panels. Their process enhances accuracy and reduces waste.  The envelope is composed of a multi-layered building system, which overlaps two types of insulation: one in the wall’s cavity and the other on the wall's exterior surface which curtails thermal bridging toward a potential PassivHaus certification.  The wall panels are factory produced and subsequently stitched on site. Varying U-values from 0,12 to 0,17 offer excellent thermal insulation (r40-50). A timber, well-insulated and protected envelope offers an enduring quality. The flexible building system is clad in a synthetic resin on a reinforcing mesh. The characteristic white stucco finish covers a deep wall that minimizes energy consumption. Their efficient process accompanied by their custom designs, showcase Weberhaus' adoption of the customizable file to factory to site business model that is currently integrating the prefabricated building industry.

Weberhaus Option house