Prefabrication experiments - 98 - Micro spaces - Marcel Lods and the modernist tradition

Constructing an optimal protective shelter is a primordial instinct and an extension of the human form. Beyond being a defense device, shelter is an expression of basic ergonomics: cooking, eating, socializing and sleeping all propose specific dimensions and interactions, which formulate architectural space.

Micro-architecture, as a study of small spaces, stems from man’s instinctive needs and has evolved into a specific type of architecture intimately relating body, space and architectural innovation. The obsession with small spaces has integrated architectural education and the focal point of many projects looking to succeed where many generations failed: the manufactured home. Founded on displaying architectural knowledge, craftsmanship and an ambition to precisely choreograph the use of every cubic millimeter of space, the minimal dwelling is also the subject of architectural literature (see Karel Teige minimal dwelling or Le Corbusier’s modulor) and the object of many inspiring architectural designs.

Rooted in early 20^th century values many modernist prototypes continue to engage disciplinary discourse. Designed in 1937, Marcel Lods accompanied by Beaudoin and Prouvé designed a bent flat plate light steel prototype mini-house as their examination of a potential industrialized house. The folded plate easily assembled and disassembled weekend house echoed automobile technology and suggested a future articulated to mobile architecture. Perhaps foreshadowing today’s tiny house movement, the tiny, micro, or small home was showcased as an efficient form of individualized living. Built on this modernist heritage the recent 27m3 micro-compact home by Richard Horden or Patkau architects weekend house are part of this conceptual framework that built the long lasting obsession between architects and minimal dwellings.

The relationship between Lod's weekend house and its contemporary descendants exceeds the simple cubic no frills aesthetic as the three projects seek to relate human dimensions and ergonomic spatial design through a seamless link between architecture and built-in functional objects. Each unit of space is optimized technically and logistically. The unified relationship between material, body and space transforms the house into an operable furniture piece allowing the user to activate certain components and become the datum by which the project is defined. The body develops the «tracé régulateur» regulating trait or force of architectural form.

Marcel Lods (left), Patkau architects(center), Richard Horden(right)

Prefabrication experiments - 97 - Harnessing a new business model

The literature examining the relationship between architecture, industrialisation and prefabrication seldom includes inquiry into the business models that uphold manufactured architecture. Prefabrication is either discussed through a romantic architectural point of view or from the other end of the spectrum as a business of mass production. The latter is the predominant business model, which hasn't changed since military technology and government underwrote the industry's development.  In Canada for example, a recent revealed that approximately ninety percent of companies implement a modular or panelized production model. A wide-ranging assessment: early industrial Fordisms continue to sustain the basic business model.

In matters of design, the pattern book still dominates product variety, however the evolution from mass production to lean construction and to today’s digitally controlled fabrication has generated a new customized and customizable form of prefabrication. The offsite construction industry can seamlessly link production and delivery with on-site quality control and end of service-life disassembly. The design/prefabrication shop, is a burgeoning model of customized kit building based on an open exchange of information between client, designer and manufacturer through an integrated building model. Relating kit building, dry construction methods, with information technology, each building is thoroughly and virtually designed before its just-in-time production. This revolution points off-site construction toward a made-to-order business model rather than the production based model that we are used to.

Architects and researchers such as Kieran and Timberlake embody this type of integrated design to manufacturing process. This kit culture seems to be quite prevalent in Australia. Australia has a rich prefab heritage. The iron houses of the Australian gold rush, postwar timber houses and perhaps most notably Glenn Murcutt's work in the establishing the relationship between customized design and quality architectural production laid the ground work for a strong prefab kit building culture. ARKit (www.arkit.com.au) is an Australian architectural design / manufacturing practise which exemplifies this new prefab business model. Articulated to quality design, craftsmanship and efficiency, Arkit argues for a customized kit of parts construction process, which allows for a totally personalized architecture seamlessly controlled on and off-site. A long way from the repetitive connotation, ARKit and this customized prefab reforms the usual process-based business model promoted by enterprise since the late 19th century.

Form workshop to site - Arkit embodies a new personalized prefab

Prefabrication experiments -96- Utility walls and pods at the Miami Valley Hospital

Modular, manufactured and mobile building strategies have been directed toward every building type from schools to post offices and most emblematically housing. Industry and architecture form a tenuous bond through the ideal of factory produced quantity and quality. Stacking pre-finished boxes as one would a child's toy block set became representative of production linked with architectural expression and was embodied by projects such as Habitat 67 (1967, Montréal) or Paul Rudolf’s colonnade condominiums (1980, Singapore). The modules suggested an infinite adaptability through plug and play form and contributed to theorizing the infrastructure to infill relationship that founded «open building» synonymous with late 20th century industrialized building systems.

The collective infrastructure and personalized infill can be traced back to standardized utilities: The Fuller bathroom, the SECIP Hygiene wall and the Mobilcore all predicted the combination of off-site quality with on-site flexibility. This infrastructure to core relationship spawned many experiments in which modular components were leveraged toward overall agility. However, module stacking or utility cores have often resulted in failure to address basic spatial requirements as standardized manufacturing dimensions often dictate architectural form.

The synergetic relationship between manufacturing potential and architectural diversity was the focal point of a successful and customized application of a utility walls and pods strategy in the Miami Valley Hospital addition built in Dayton, Ohio, USA. The twelve -storey, forty six thousand five hundred square meter extension employed contemporary conceptualization, modelling and fabrication methods to achieve a supple and adaptable building system while attaining economical viability. Each room is organised around a prefabricated demising wall equipped as a technical hub and is linked to a volumetric bathroom pod. The architects from NBBJ consultants along with builder Skanska were both exploring prefab in order to increase quality and productivity.

The architects designed the utility walls and cores to relate to contextual requirements instead of employing existing module dimensions. Building information modeling and mock-ups were central to developing totally customized prefabricated pieces. The factory-produced modules are more than volumetric components. Each utility wall and bathroom pod is a physical representation of information imbedded design, which will adapt to varying needs of quickly evolving hospital technology. The «building blocks» are designed and manufactured according to no pre-set standards and are intended to be easily replaceable. 

Utility wall and pod representation