Since modernism pioneered new architectural possibilities based on industrial techniques and materials, architects have developed an enigmatic love-hate relationship with industrialized construction. In best cases, they have proposed prototypes ingrained with a capacity for mass production, fashioned from off-the-shelf details in the name of standardization; Iconic, well-known architects presented prefabrication as a model for mass housing. Others have been highly critical and probably one of the reasons prefab has fallen short of attaining the same large-scale successes of manufacturing in other sectors. Reaping prefab's advantages requires deep normalization. As presented in mobile home manufacturing in the United States, or in panelized precast concrete systems of the Soviet era Gosstroys, production was tuned to economic objectives. This type of mass-produced housing was highly criticized by architects for its reduced design value.
Architects have espoused the narrative of standardization without the commitment to standardized design. Repeating a singular extruded curtain wall profile in a building is the type of detailing architects have come to propose as their understanding of standardization. Widespread standardization has been achieved in the building industry demonstrated by every part and piece of a building being catalogued, specified, purchased and delivered with respectable lead times; any big-box hardware retailer depicts this comprehensive normalization.
Using made-to-stock ready-to-use components to build a house or building is one of the reasons the fragmented building culture remains a successful albeit inefficient model of production. Contractors buy and deploy these elements without scrutinizing low-design value whereas architects will try to redefine elements arguing for the added value of singular design. This singularity associated with architecture is a complete non-standard approach leading to higher costs and increased production waste. The added value of the architectural design process is vital but must be harmonized and weighed against the required changes in production values and methods to achieve atypical designs. Standardization along with designed for manufacturing efficiencies require a grasp of production to attain scaled replicability and represents the only positive way forward for a stagnating industry.
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| Walter Gropius and Konrad Wachsmann's Packaged House |
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