Prefabrication experiments - 95 - Reactive modular structures

In the ongoing quest to unite quality architecture with factory production, efficiency has been considered as one of the key benefits of prefabricated building systems. Standardised components can facilitate production, specification, coordination and assembly and possibly engender low cost and high volume alternatives to conventional construction methods. Although manufactured buildings suggest this productivity, they often convey repetitive design, which often veils prefab’s acceptability.

Component based systems such as the «Mero» structural framework, Buckminster fuller’s geodesic structures or the war-time Bailey bridge demonstrated prefab's adaptability however their application was limited to specific structural applications often relegated to exhibit architecture. The demand for architectural specificity has outweighed the need for efficacy.

The construction industry’s continued decrease in productivity combined with a necessary shift toward sustainable construction is driving a paradigm shift from traditional to off-site construction. This shift is also being propelled by contemporary information and communication technology. Big Data, digitally controlled manufacturing, and information driven methodologies are improving fabrication processes and are potentially imbedding systems with the capacity to adapt to their surroundings: climate, social and interactive. The high level of technology that can integrate building systems requires an equally high level of production precision.  This type of digitally responsive architecture is evolving through research and practical applications to frame a totally new type of prefabricated experiment: the reactive building system.

Reactive structures, from Doris Sung’s investigation of composite metals or the mutable shading devices on the Al Bahar Towers by Aedas highlight this new type of efficient building system, which allows varying contexts to dictate form and adaptations. Sung’s Bloom project showcases a solar driven system of expanding and contracting metals which induce deformation of the composing laminate depending which layer is expanding or contracting. The Al Bahar tower system uses a more traditional approach as shading devices transform according to sun’s changing incidence angles throughout the day.

Although these marginal projects are not streamlined applications, they propose building systems that efficiently react to changing climatic conditions. Analogous to a bird’s capacity to fluff in winter or a pinecone's shape shifting according to ambient humidity, the modular coordination and its precisely choreographed adaptability can contribute to the beginning of a new and exciting phase for manufactured building systems.

Representation of Doris Sung's «Bloom» composite metal reactive structure

Prefabrication experiments - 94 - Japanese prefab and MUJI

The groundwork for Japanese manufactured housing was outlined by massive postwar rebuilding programs, which underwrote industrialization initiatives and fruitful collaborations between industry and architects. More than any other country, Japanese industry fused architectural quality with the imperatives of housing production (costs/timelines/craftsmanship). The conventional business model associated with mass production was challenged by the customization experiments of Sekisui Heim or the now infamous Toyota production theory. Japan’s industry championed the coming of age of lean and supple manufacturing processes. Within the field of manufactured architecture, the metabolist movement’s proponents showcased the umbrella concepts, of capsules and infrastructure, but mainstream companies continuing to produce quality homes demonstrate the real success of the Japanese industry.

Further to innovative production methods and the shear need to revamp housing, Japan’s traditional building culture dominated by traditional dimensioning, cutting and assembling made Japan a fertile ground for prefabrication. Rigorous production, organisational customs, customizable systems and social acceptability are the focal points of the country's success in off-site construction. These themes were eloquently united to develop many flagship manufacturers: Daewa, Sekisui, Panahomes are just a few companies that embody the durability and anchorage of the prefab housing business model in Japan.

Recently, MUJI, a commodity and lifestyle product distributor famous for its no brand branding expanded to the housing industry by uniting with architect Kengo Kuma. The company's simple, no frills aesthetic parallels contemporary prefab imagery and promotes the qualities associated with manufactured architecture: beautiful, quickly built, low cost and sustainable. Sprouting from a fruitful collaboration with Kuma, MUJI now promotes its vertical house as a flexible, adaptable, low cost house.

Muji's vertical house is offered in seven different organisations to accommodate diverse lifestyles. The vertically organised frame structure uses both simple spatial organisation and intelligent construction details to produce a lifestyle receptacle in tune with the company's business model. The visible glulam post and beam construction system is assembled with steel plates and fasteners. The joinery is reminiscent of traditional Japanese wood carpentry. The house's staircase distributes spaces vertically and collects light from the axial skylight. The simple stacking of spaces in a five-meter wide module also addresses the cultural need for densely organised streets capes.

MUJI infill 

Prefabrication experiments - 93 - wikihouse

Building one’s own dwelling or home is a symbolically charged endeavour. Cultural, traditional, contextual and individual criteria intertwine to define a singular pursuit, which has often been at odds with industrialization’s demand for mass production. Combining production with customization and user adoption is a persisting challenge in the history of manufactured housing. From the generic open plan devised by Le Corbusier in the DOM-INO reinforced concrete structure for housing to Ken Isaac's living structures and Walter Segal's self-build pre-cut housing schemes, systems’ flexibility and adaptability has highlighted a potential manufactured and user-defined variability. The quest for uniting individual with collective needs was epitomized by Habraken's theory of support (collective) and infill (individual) toward a systemic variability, which still underscores «open building» theory. 

Habraken’s theories and open building to some degree parallel open-source theory and the maker/hacker movement constructed on global social connectivity. Although marginally applied in building, prefabrication is evolving with contemporary tools and methods and driving a revolution in the way projects are developed and built. Building information modelling or BIM is piloting a greater collaboration between project stakeholders and allowing digitally operated tools to be mainstream in project completion. In the maker/hacker sphere, Fablabs are making cutting-edge technologies available to everyone and modelling software is now only a smart-phone away. This world of communal knowledge incubators will integrate building practises.

Alastair Parvin’s wikihouse, comparable to Larry Sass's research at MIT with the yourHouse project, relates the self-build and maker backgrounds by offering an on-line platform of collaboration. The platform allows users to download modelling details for designing digitally cut patterns of combinable parts toward a totally customizable architecture. Models are exchanged, shared and contribute to an infinitely expanding community of experiments. Cut from plywood or any other panel material the building system is fundamentally a life-size puzzle kit of interconnected flat parts. The life-size puzzle architecture is showcasing open-source methodology and involving user-based design principles. The wikihouse platform is part of a creative commons on-line strategy of iterative collaboration. The open-source building kit, originally organized around structure and skin, is expanding to include mechanical, solar, electrical and a plethora of plug and play systems that support conceptualizing an integrated solution for low-cost housing.

Assembly Details - wikihouse