The number of building systems invented to quell housing shortages in the wake of the Second World War is impressive. Lightweight experimental building kits in steel, timber and aluminum, plastic composite shell prototypes and most prolifically heavy panelized systems in reinforced precast concrete were deployed to rebuild and affordably house the masses. Most benefited from some form of government sponsorship using policies to initiate large-scale building underscored by the need to reform a stagnating construction industry. Factory production had been a determining factor in advancing wartime technologies and the optimism linked to new technologies propelled the following thirty years of building programs.
As systems were designed and tested the tension between individuality and serial production became a central focus - some remained anchored to the mass production of elements scaled for a myriad of repeating buildings, while others projected variable near-site production and assembly as a bridge between productivity and customization. These different approaches were embodied by two French heavy precast systems with iconic names, Camus and Barets; both achieved success, with thousands of flats produced all over Europe and abroad.
Most large panel blocks seem to have been cut from the same cloth, but they contain some important differences. Camus - see blog posts 131 and 311 - relied on greater initial production investments and factory-intensive processes, while the Jean Barets system proposed near site assembly lines for frames, panels and floor slabs assembled monolithically with site-cast concrete or mortar filled joints.
The near-site agility made it possible to bring fabrication to any context and reasonably sized projects without relying on the vital upfront project pipeline as was the case for the Camus panel blocks. Project specific finishes and profiles could be determined by architects and designers with an open system nimble enough to adapt to any residential building type as was shown in a beautiful example by architect Marcel Breuer at the Z.U.P. project in Bayonne (1964-68) using the panel production process which when all told would be used to develop 16 000 flats of different sizes and scales. The project specific panels, modulated as thick architectural envelopes, were nuanced to develop rich textures and profiles from tweaked repeating moulds.
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| Section through panels in the Bayonne project |
