Modest serially made houses have demonstrated the potential application of industrialization to dwelling supply. Using mass-produced modular metal panels and a steel frame led to one of the most famous prefabricated kit house experiments of the twentieth century: The Lustron House promised to achieve in housing what the assembly line and folded plate metal had successfully brought to Ford co. A streamlined process of scaling supply chains to produce frames, panels and components in an easy to deliver and assemble kit would make quality houses economical.
Production of Lustron began in the United States in the late 1940s, but never attained the commercial success that had been championed by investors and government policy underwriting steel's mass application in civilian use in the shadow of the second World War. The underlying concepts of Lustron explored by its promoters had also been part of architectural fantasies and budding pedagogies.
One proposal, envisioned by Marcel Breuer, The Small Metal House (Kleinmetal haus) designed in 1926 prefigured the building materials and coordinated systems used for Lustron but with a specifically modern aesthetic. The minimalist geometry and aesthetic epitomized Bauhaus training studied as formulas for bringing quality architecture to the masses. A starting point for a modular pattern book of houses with each dwelling design using the basic components to develop personalized plans according to user needs would, today, be considered as mass customization or even as an innovative platform theory applied to housing.
Revolution 4 Architecture’s Modern Modular and a growing list of other contemporary architects argue for platform modularity to democratize good design at low cost; the architect’s vision is disseminated among many consumers. What is usually thought of as unaffordable (mandating an architect to design a custom home) becomes a marginal expense as architectural prowess, vision and genius is brought to the series or «models». Once the prototype is perfected, its principles are applied en masse. The small metal house provides a vision into the industrial serialization of architecture by componentizing and aggregating organizations into patterns. Like many modern architects it seems that Breuers’ mass customizable home was only a century ahead of its time.
 |
| left: The Small Metal House ; center: Lustron ; right: Modern Modular |
No comments:
Post a Comment