Prefabrication experiments - 359 - Containerization of housing

 

Residential housing design employs repetitive organisations and has been the subject of industrialized production using volumetric boxes or panelized building systems in a variety of materials. Spans are relatively small and rectangular. Apartments are often repeated from one floor plate to the next with interchangeable modular built-ins for wet spaces (kitchens, baths).  These patterns guide the housing market making it an ideal sector for normalized fabrication and process replication. A notable production analogy devised to improve efficiencies in housing uses the ISO container storage unit, a stackable block determined by intermodal transport with standardized dimensions and connections as a model for building construction.

 

Normalized containers generalized and communicated a way of shipping things across the planet. The boxes also outlined a common way of storing things, aboard a ship, in a port or in warehouses.  A similar containerization strategy is behind English company Verbus’ way to quickly put together mid-rise housing.  The basic building block, a generic module looks and works much like a shipping container that has been modified and tuned according to multi-unit residential requirements. The volume, 3,6m width x12,2 m length x2.9 m in height includes openings for a central corridor, which defines a double loaded floor plate of small studio flats. Windows and balcony elements are provided on the units’ extremities.  Service shaft holes above and below the container structure standardize duct placement to pre-set vertical mechanical distribution. 

 

More than just a container, the Verbus system has been designed with attachment points to vary massing from straight linear plans to rhythmic alternating and protruding compositions. Cladding and brickwork hangers are also incorporated for any number of wall systems to be attached to the basic steel structure. The generic floor plan presents a 12’ grid with 5 juxtaposed containers, 3 of which have the corridor scheme while the two end containers complete 2-bedroom units, without the hallway space. The steel structured volumes can be stacked up to 16 stories high and have found resonance with hotel design, a definitive outlet for a containerized design.

Verbus massing and floorplate diagrams