Prefabrication experiments - 85 - The Architects Collaborative and housing prototypes

The strong relationship between housing, architecture and prefabrication founded on the principles of industrialization, notably mass-production, urbanisation and commercialization defined modernity in architecture. The modern architect inspired, strived and searched for innovative housing types that combined industry, architecture and a new willingness to serve. Together with Frank Loyd Wright's Usonian homes to Alar Aalto's small wood houses in collaboration with Ahlström, architects transformed the practise from its elitist heritage based on underwriting kings, emperors and the clergy into a profession that helped conceptualize and redefine the industrial city and its necessary constituents. The modern architect was as much a philosopher as he was a designer.

The figurehead of the profession’s social renewal and the search for an equitable solution to the housing problem was Walter Gropius. His early designs for Copper houses, his 1924 manifesto on the housing industry and his later collaborations with Konrad Wachsmann explored industrialized but variable systems for building. His American influence evolved from his role at the German Bauhaus, his prominence at Harvard and eventually led to a collaborative studio founded with seven young American architects. The Architects Collaborative (TAC) founded on Gropius’ social vision helped the group become an important part of modernism in the USA. Among a great variety of mandates, TAC developed master plans for Six Moon Hill and Five fields. The two housing developments in Lexington, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, were to elucidate the potential relationship between simple low-cost designs and the spatial quality that had become synonymous with the modernist tenet.   

The master plans based on the utopian ideals of the garden suburb included a central communal space. The prototype houses were aimed squarely at the post-war American suburban family. The emphasised relationship between indoor common areas and outdoor family space made these small homes unambiguously modern. Although not completely prefabricated, most designs were based on the use of industrialized components and a standard twelve-foot by twelve-foot modular spatial volume, which was combined into numerous arrangements. The houses designed, built and sold by TAC brought them total control as the developer in order to harmonize all project procedures. The standard wood framed structures kept costs comparable to other developments and the simple detailing celebrated Gropius’ practical approach to construction.

House in Five Fields

Prefabrication experiments - 84 - BoKlok by Ikea

The marketing, commercialization, design, production and distribution of prefabricated housing units engenders a multifaceted puzzle that has often resulted in either marginal commercial success or more often in complete commercial failure. The companies that have succeeded in bringing a bulk production strategy to housing construction are to be commended for enduring in a market sector weighed down by one-off replicas that are built conventionally and sometimes lack regard for both design and construction quality. As Colin Davies observed in his book, The Prefabricated Home, only about twenty percent of housing is the result of a design process.

The difficulty of bringing some type of standardisation to architecture has produced many experiments both by architects and industry. However, housing has remained an exercise in customization built on the light standardisation of doors, windows, kitchens, fixtures, etc. It seems that to attain substantial prefabrication of manufactured units, knowledge of the construction industry must be combined with knowledge of mass marketing and commercialization. This union of multiple fields would surely be a major differentiating asset. In 1996, the marriage of Skanska, a large multinational construction company, with Ikea, would make for a formidable team toward mass-producing dwellings. Ikea proposed this partnership as a strategy to bring instant construction credibility to their product, which was sold in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and most recently in the UK. 

Ikea’s take on industrialised housing, the BoKlok modules are a result of this marriage aimed to bring the benefits of factory production to the low-cost housing market. The original objective was to allow Ikea's successes in furniture and product design to percolate into mainstream housing design. Each module is factory produced as a standard volumetric unit and then delivered on site. The BoKlok offers standard modules for terrassed and multifamily dwellings and is geared toward demonstrating that smaller is better when it comes to design and to controlling our environmental footprint. The Ikea modules are certainly recognizable as Ikea on the inside but seem to lack the same inventiveness on the outside. The BoKlok system has achieved marginal success but can been largely discussed as yet another unsuccessful attempt to bridge the gap between housing, production and design.

From BoKlok catalogue

Prefabrication experiments - 83- Reinforced concrete and the waffle slab

One of the enduring themes of modernity in architecture is the open plan. Le Corbusier’s DOM-INO system (1914) is still emblematic of this concept in architecture. The flat slab construction elucidated by DOM-INO was developed by structural engineers at the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th century. Julius Kahn patented a reinforced concrete slab in 1903. The open plan, a result of new building techniques, was the architectural expression of horizontal liberated space. This revolution completed the progress from wall-based architecture to skeletal see-through architecture. The open post and slab also yielded countless precast systems of components geared to easily juxtaposing pre-made elements toward an infinitely variable architecture.

The steel, wood or concrete post and beam skeleton symbolized the modern open plan spatial organization, which users could adapt to their evolving needs. As many architects explored this new language of transparency, others turned to the semantic of open-ended building systems. Angelo Mangiarotti, an Italian architect was particularly proficient in developing precast component based systems. From the BRIONA construction system to his U70 system, Mangiarotti combined his talents for design with a passion for industrial production to conceive precast concrete components for panels, posts and beams. Another Italian, Pier Luigi Nervi also showcased industrial components leveraged toward open spaces. His waffle slabs for the Gatti wool factory and the Palazzo del lavorro exemplify the evolution from the simple flat slab to complex prestressed mushroom slabs and fantastically open spaces. 

While architects and engineers explored these component-based systems, many were patented and mass-produced while others remained impractical. The umbrella slab alternately referred to as the mushroom slab developed directly from the flat slab also derived a series of precast systems for building. The US patent - US 3788012 A, incorporated a square or rectangular waffle slab as a column capital supported by a central post or mast. The flat waffle floor mushrooms could be juxtaposed and assembled in orthographic directions both horizontal and vertical. The prefabricated elements could be delivered on site and quickly organize an open structural system based on the principles of the open plan: liberating space, function and envelope aesthetics.

Image from US patent - US 3788012 A