Prefabrication experiments - 197 - current practices - 08 - Housing System of Functional Units

Making architecture from industrialized pieces stemmed from the reforming of construction methods from the vernacular piling, lashing, and fastening of on-site cut and amassed materials to factory produced, catalogued and specified components for every building system. Granted, the industrialization of architecture is not the same class of complete industrialization achieved for commodities. However, manufacturing positioned components and their tailored assembly as the basis of a type of architectural «bricolage» and guided the way a major portion of architecture gets produced today. Combining bigger factory-made integrated components evolved and was envisioned as a way of adding value from a production standpoint while reducing on-site construction tribulations. The building module, segment, sub-assembly, chunk or capsule are all variations on the same theme; delivering an optimized building unit / section made from a harmonized design and production process. The units’ organizations or configurations facilitate customization as the whole building is not predefined but assembled from programmed volumes to suit individualized needs.  

Designed as part of the Hello Wood Hungary design build summer studio, IR Architectura used sectional prefabrication as the conceptual starting point of their low-cost housing system.  Varied architectural relationships and configurations are composed from functional housing room-chunks. Chunks for eating, cooking, sleeping and storing are positioned according to users’ needs and surround an open living space which could be built locally and adapted to site conditions. The low-cost housing system includes modules for passive heating and cooling such as integrated trombe walls and solar panels. Defined as an overlap between an industrialized construction system and basic shed construction the project endeavours to bridge the gap between standardization and customization. 

Each service unit is part of an overall building strategy set up on site to maximize adaptability and resilience. It is possible to imagine an adaptable / and evolving building system established on the acquisition of indispensable functional units which would be assembled to take into account changes over time. The space between the units is completely customizable. Influenced by a plug-and-play and impermanent view of architecture each individual living unit could be erected, used, disassembled, and reorganized several times over a family’s lifetime.

Functional units from IR Architectura website