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