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