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