Prefabrication experiments - 240 - measuring devices - 01 - Regulating Lines

Systems of weights and measures are one of the oldest social constructs. Emerging from a need to ensure fair exchange, barter and later commerce, rules for equitable measurements are as essential as language. Clear methods for measuring, sharing, rationing and proportioning are not specific to architecture, construction or prefabrication, however, measurement systems in these fields emblematically relate to anchoring, setting and positioning edifices in relation to their context and constituting parts. Measurement systems in architecture connect and recount acquiesced methods for defining and circumscribing space and limits. Shared rules for proportioning facilitate calculations and normalize communication, coordination and collaboration between project stakeholders. 

Modularity in architecture and building systems is ground zero for this scaling, combining and characterizing simple formulae for multiplying, dividing, adding or subtracting systematically to retain constant and coherent measurements. The module or the smallest unit of measure which connects the unit to the whole is clearly expressed in brick and mortar construction. The modular brick can be multiplied and stacked in variable ways while retaining the proportioning system of the single unit. Measured horizontally or vertically, the entire building dimension will be a factor of the brick’s elemental size. It becomes the regulating line for the building. 

These theories of systemic coordination are still the basis of harmonic detailing in architecture. Used interchangeably, proportions, modules, grid systems, generative geometry, or regulating lines, these themes will be explored in the next ten blog posts. Particular attention will be placed on dimensional coordination and its relationship to modernizing architecture and generating prefabrication theory more specifically. While not limited to prefabrication, coherent and synchronized gauging systems are a requirement for manufacturing as this dimensional regularly makes it possible to define repetitive manufacturing processes, control their inputs or outputs and easily define assembly constants. A prime example of this normalization is the single-wide manufactured house.  Transport criteria determined both interior and exterior dimensions and is a factor for overall building dimensions, when single-wides are juxtaposed or stacked, as the unitary brick is in masonry construction. Prefabrication, at its most basic level is, like architecture, a function of shared geometric principles to make computations simpler by allowing pieces and parts of buildings to be interchangeable and compatible. 

Bemis' modular coordination principles