The disparity between how architects envision prefabricated dwelling systems and the operational way the manufactured housing sector has developed was highlighted by numerous experiments throughout the twentieth century. Architects stacked and assembled rectangular prisms in varying and imaginative ways demonstrating how simple steel, timber or concrete manufactured boxes would become the basic kernel of an evolving urbanism. Paul Rudolf’s Masonic Gardens in New Haven Connecticut defined this specifically architectural view of mass production sourcing simple single-wides as the modular unit in a type of dwelling masonry. Since demolished, Rudolf’s vision of composing single-wides into a community exemplifies architectural prefab.
While architects visualized mass production applied to building, the manufactured housing sector realized the longstanding dream of uniting industry with housing. Debatable in matters of architectural quality and connoting questionable material quality, the single-wide remains a commercial success while being unsustainable in terms of land use.
Architects continue their experimental approach toward prefabrication to represent their visions for better housing which responds to contemporary needs. Designed by Sprecht architects, ZeroHouse is a prototype for zero energy housing. The massing is based on two 12-foot x 36-foot prefabricated volumes which are stacked and intersected perpendicularly to shape a symmetrical cross plan. The cross plan is basic but constructs an interconnected spatial dynamic with views in every direction. The stacking also creates an interesting mass to void relationship generating covered spaces on the ground floor and elevated roof terraces on the upper floor. This modest rotation of a prism over another is a very effective spatial device. The house was designed as a research project without a client and as an exhibit piece for showcasing energy technologies for zero carbon living. The proposed photovoltaic roof acts as a water collection device and is the powerhouse of the off-grid dwelling. Demonstrating an array of proposed technologies from grey water recycling to composting black water, the house is an inventory of available expertise and equipment.
The basic idea of the Zerohouse while an interesting prototype continues to present prefabrication through the idealized eyes of architects: spatially interesting, materially innovative and technologically advanced. This conceptual distance to current manufactured housing standards remains the basic problem of the dream of the factory-made house.
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| Zero House cross section through the prefabricated volumes (from architects website) |
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