Prefabrication experiments - 296 - Trade literature - 07 - Serial postal building

 

From delivering houses to building new schools, normalized buildings intellectualized and characterized as repeatable have been a focal point for industrialized building system protagonists. Serialization of specific building types could be planned to facilitate every part of the construction process from assigning professionals to purchasing materials and commissioning builders. Repetition mitigates the risks associated with conventional design and building practice. Even with the connotations associated with producing identical architecture, serial building with manufacturing design, production and management principles makes it possible to determine, compare, evaluate and gauge quality. Public and civic buildings, part of government purchasing policy, have in many countries been a fertile ground for promoting or sustaining industrial clusters by developing a coordinated building process through prearranged typologies. 

 

An interesting case project undertaken in Italy in the 1970s leveraged the reinforced concrete industry to develop a standard post-office building system from made-to-stock precast reinforced concrete components. The precast modular pieces were conceived for a one-story structure. Pier-Luigi Spadolini, architect and industrial designer, was mandated to design this simple system for updating civic structures’ quality being built in small communities in Italy at the time. The post-office as a pattern would inform all manner of civic buildings to ensure coherence throughout public procurement and production policies. 

 

Mandated by the Italian Postal service and department of Telecommunications, the standard building was arranged on economical modular structural spans, either cast on site or in steel post and beam skeletons.  The spans’ division into smaller grids coordinated all other systems and components.  Measurements, arrangements and model sizes were defined by community needs, ministry regulations, bylaws and existing spatial criteria. The precast components and curtain wall elements included textured panel elements for walls, columns and transom panels. These patterned elements would become, in theory, the trademark of the postal service. Spadolini’s comprehensive approach deployed the modern design principle of «oevre complete» - complete work.  The small postal building’s kit-of-parts included physical building components, details and a coherent strategy for everything from signage, to wayfinding and building identification. This type of serial or batch building applied to civic structures exemplifies the potential for a shared approach to streamline design, procurement and management for government agencies. 

Modular precast concrete panels