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