Componentization is a direct consequence of industrialization. Parts, pieces, anchors, or assemblies are mass produced and include innumerable catalogued variations to create bespoke buildings. Modern buildings are all, in a way, kits composed of these manufactured parts. Design for Assembly was one of modernism's canons that conceptually defined component prefabrication’s applications. Assembling edifices from coordinated parts inspired dimensional coordination but parts remained disparate: interfaces and systemic coordination were rarely considered in parts production. Instead, romanticized harmonious detailing of diversely manufactured parts in building construction guided the architect's role in providing instructions for coherent integration. Applying Lean production principles, BIM modeling and even DfMA principles to component manufacturing is currently reforming the sometimes disjointed and entangled relationship between design, fabrication and construction.
Componentization can be further enhanced by modularization, creating coherent dimensional, joining and production parameters, to produce elements designed to fit into or added-on to buildings. Premade bathroom pods, elevator frames, staircases, precast wall panels and manufactured balconies are all large sub-assemblies becoming common as offsite production is understood as an efficient and productive alternative to archaic and wasteful onsite construction. Sapphire, a company based in the suburbs of London, produces balconies as a type of coordinated chunk devised to simply slide onto a building's structural system. The prefabricated balcony is an assembly of two main parts; the prism (deck and rails) is conceived with two framed openings that glide the floor onto extending brackets cantilevered from the building structure like the two extending forks of a forklift. These outstretched members can be bolted to steel beams or cast in concrete slabs. The two contact points reduce thermal bridging associated with continuous balcony slabs. The module is flatpacked, delivered on site and craned to be set at a specified height. The floor «cassette» is lightweight and includes material choices for glass guardrails and decking. The company takes modern technology even further with their configurator «coach», an on-line tool deployed to customize designs from predetermined rules and dimensions. Details can then be downloaded and specified. This type of online catalogued part and process streamlines the relationship between design and fabrication through a type of preprogrammed personalization.
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| Sapphire balcony being lifted into place |
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