The intent of open prefabricated building systems as opposed to closed systems is and has always been the standardisation of parts to be combined in multiple manners and customizable configurations. Whether stacking modules or pieces, one of the persistent challenges to modularity is structural efficiency. Particularly in tall buildings, standardized components’ capacity to resist loads must be uniquely tuned to their specific placement within the building’s structure. As a typical example, lower modules in a tall building must support all modules stacked above them. Their geometry and organization are reinforced giving each unit a structural specificity within the overall structure. This fundamental uniqueness increases costs and impedes repetition. Similarly, in concrete construction whether modular or site cast, ground floor columns are often larger than upper floor columns in order to support the accumulating gravitational loads.
A Canadian company founded by architect Julian Bowron, Vector praxis, is tackling this long-standing question with an adaptable building system which bundles standard elemental pieces together and provides for their connections. The modular skeletal system is composed of hollow structural sections aligned, juxtaposed and assembled to form composite columns of various sizes depending on the building’s span and scope. Digitally calculated, profiled and manufactured the connectors are an accurate and interlocking alternative to the standard column to steel bolted connections. Akin to timber glue-laminated beams, the system is scalable. Bundled together the 100x100mm steel sections define larger and more robust sections. The company has invented and developed a number of similar standard components to facilitate on-site assembly. The company’s system proposed for tall buildings, employs these elemental units for columns, beams and for shear walls. The VectorBloc is the proprietary modelled connector which guides each joint in the required direction. Inspired by shipping container construction each connector is the vertex of a stackable prism unit. Further, by setting structural parameters, within a generative software environment, the resulting array of spans, sections and their required connectors could theoretically be instantly attuned as a type of responsive tessellation. Multiplying a kernal of a parametrically designed and regulated building system, the composite post and beams and their connectors are produced and delivered as an on-site customized kit-of-parts.
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| Bundling standard columns into composite columns - from the Vector Praxis Website |
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