Prefabrication experiments - 194 - current practices - 05 - Protohomes' Hyperspace and Protocore

In the early twentieth century, technology played a fundamental role in developing a factory-made architecture or more specifically an industry, which would produce homes with the same efficiencies as automobiles. Surrounded by a revolution in manufacturing most modern architects set aside part of their time to contribute, explore, construct and determine the future of dwelling production. The separation of served and service spaces is one of the modern principles developed to facilitate the incorporation and arrangement of new technical needs, components and conveniences. Today, information technology, digital fabrication and their accessibility are driving a new era of prefab experimentation. Alternatives to the basic on-site stick building that overtook many other methods during the latter half of the nineteenth and the first part of the twentieth centuries are being challenged.  Protohomes, a California based company, founded by architecturally trained Frank Vafaee in 2011 is proposing homes that utilize and assimilate contemporary methods and information technology to showcase new prefab potentials in the housing sector.

Protohome’s housing strategy is based on the very modern idea of served (hyperspace) and service (protocore) spaces. Separating technical spaces from living spaces opens up the home, letting it evolve and adapt from current patterns to future configurations as the plan is unconstrained from structural or technical components. The Protocore is the power unit of the home; a contemporary service core or hub, which includes all electrical, mechanical, infrastructure and plumbing elements. Read simply as core and adjacent spaces, this strategy is not very different from what many architects have tried, however the company uses BIM based modeling to link design to fabrication to on-site assembly. Their Integrated Component Based Assemblyis a process by which all the houses components and pieces are virtually predetermined and included in a large company catalogue which can serve multiple house typologies based on an evolving kit-of-parts. Construction elements and materials remain fairly conventional, while the innovative modeling process should alleviate the entanglement associated with on-site construction. An integrated manufacturer, Protohome’s business model is driving a new type of off-site construction where technology and BIM modeling act as a harmonizing tool for a more streamlined home delivery.  

Proto Core - from the company website