Affordability and prefabrication have been correlated in the production of mobile homes, postwar bungalows, and largescale panelized concrete buildings throughout Europe. Manufactured housing replicates housing processes and elements over many instances decreasing costs through harmonized supply chains, bulk orders, and standardization, all principles of mass production. Rationalization is articulated to minimizing specialized or individualized demands. Another strategy normalizes similar systems for varied uses. The same free-spanning structure determined for storage can be transformed by adding prefab stairs, bath or kitchen pods producing a ready-made flat, temporary or permanent.
Reducing the number of composing elements and parts to build multifunctional inhabitable structures is based on structurally efficient shapes and geometries that are easy to assemble and disassemble. The A-frame, Butler frames, and barrel vault huts are examples of low-cost structures that combine walls and roofs into a simple space defining and covering approach to building. Architects and industrialists have seen ready-made kit dwellings in these unpretentious volumes to efficiently address housing shortages.
A recent proposal in Detroit designed by EC3 architects showcased the SteelMaster manufacturing capabilities to revive the affordable dwelling possibilities of the Quonset Hut Prefabrication experiments 15. The semi-circular extruded vault gained popularity as an instant airplane hangar, storage unit or emergency hospital during the second World War. Just outside Detroit's downtown disrict, eight barrel vaults are aggregated into a community. The steel structures are domesticated by adding curtain walls to each gable end. Polycarbonate panels and personalized lighting accents add touch of contemporary design to the manufactured arched elevations.
The eight units provide rental spaces for live-work spaces for artists or start-ups. The restrained interiors are organized around a wood framed wetcore, which also includes a staircase and supports a loft sleeping area. The ribbed corrugated arches are insulated by interior curved plywood or timber framed enveloping ceilings that weatherproof and conceal the steel vaults on the inside while their extrados surface is a completely recognizable community figure. The simple to produce and build elements highlight that reducing a house to its most basic elements, floor, curved enclosure and a service hearth contain some answers to the affordability dilemma.
Barrel vaults during construction
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