tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5652641815310368822024-03-27T16:52:48.898-07:00pre[FABRICA]tionsnotes on mass housing, building systems, dwellings types, offsite construction and industrialized buildingpre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.comBlogger416125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-91179140332362914902024-03-27T07:51:00.000-07:002024-03-27T07:51:31.236-07:00Prefabrication experiments - 416 - S(dwellings) - The Patio / Courtyard House<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The characteristic difficulty with tying standardized planning principles with architecture’s site specificness has long been a challenge for prefabrication and building industrialization. Vernacular, classic and modern homes have this required connection to locus in common. Climate, topography, and traditions inform regional particularities that disavow normalized designs or so it would seem. Notwithstanding this required singularity, even the most regionally specific architectural canons carry some generalizable principles; from modularity in traditional Japanese building, to stacking log joinery in Norwegian vernacular or even curved trunk blades in medieval English Cruck frames (early A-frames) were all democratized in their time and place.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">An almost universal generic archetype used to define a house's attachment to place is the central patio. Atriums, positioned to concentrate and relate surrounding spaces, establish a focal void which opposes the way small tract bungalows are related to site. The patio house creates a specific focal point, while the typical bungalow is the center point; the two arrangements express very distinct ways of relating to positive and negative space generated by their geometries. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The twentieth century Patio House was imagined by many architects as a counterproposal to the standard house to garden configuration for creating specific from generic lightweight timber framing to maximize interior and exterior connectivity. Alvar Aalto’s experimental summer house in Säynätsalo, Finland exemplifies these modern themes. The design is a modular grid planning masterpiece and deploys geometric proportions to define an anchored courtyard. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Using the patio house as a central prefab idea, differentiating designs according to dynamic spatial arrangements, Australian House producer Fabprefab with CHROFI<span style="color: #b3b3a6;"> </span>architects assembled their version of a courtyard house. Two principal volumes are placed in enfilade and contain living spaces, a reading room and a covered exterior space. A third, shorter manufactured box, is set partially against the first two generating a void defined by the flanking living box. The small house is a dynamic organization of day and night spaces clearly separated by two modlines attached by a bridging segment. Enclosed by full height glass walls that reveal a spatial promenade between both patios, the exterior spaces can anchor this simple generalizable plan to any expansive site.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBi7xX6_x13dKmk363kU0nQ6LzLOk3U9plmXwzretB7azpm6TygA37dV6CErGjUamBs9ozjxOlyvzjccbviYN5TaC0uBbYjfUL43srKoBzY61Xe78ClpXYexvOxSlG2Y9QzeJzyG1r9opJZFWUkSxqjY48YiSofPH4yosK4A3XUzAXJmWCd83iZY1dYebM/s3627/416_patio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1759" data-original-width="3627" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBi7xX6_x13dKmk363kU0nQ6LzLOk3U9plmXwzretB7azpm6TygA37dV6CErGjUamBs9ozjxOlyvzjccbviYN5TaC0uBbYjfUL43srKoBzY61Xe78ClpXYexvOxSlG2Y9QzeJzyG1r9opJZFWUkSxqjY48YiSofPH4yosK4A3XUzAXJmWCd83iZY1dYebM/w640-h310/416_patio.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CHROFI architects and FABPREFAB's courtyard house</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-23291122396760106632024-03-19T12:04:00.000-07:002024-03-19T12:04:25.999-07:00Prefabrication experiments - 415 - S(dwellings) - The Prefab Bungalow<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The automobile transformed territorial planning; leaving the city for its surrounding suburbs or countryside fostered demand for quickly built homes and subsequently for leisure dwellings. A by-product of Henry Ford’s assembly-line principles applied to housing, the small serially produced bungalow on site or in a factory suburbanized America and converted house building into a promoter-based commercial transaction. Tracts of flattened sites were seeded with small reproducible fully-furnished homes. The bungalow, a one floor dwelling designed for the nuclear family is the symbol and central focus of formidable off-site built failures (Lustron) and prolific onsite built successes (Levittowns). The American dream of the utilitarian affordable single-family dwelling produced in an industrialized process was perfected in North America and idealized in globalized literature.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">German author Walter Meyer Bohe’s <i>Prefabricated Houses</i> studied the bungalow, outlined its concepts and design parameters for the production of what was put forth as a flexible type for the masses. A published case-study defines a straightforward building strategy not linked it to any specific construction system, but to strict systemic dimensional coordination; generating a harmonized material supply chain, reduced waste and iterative optimizations - all serial production ideals.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The manufacturing process could feasibly be mechanized but could also allow site customization by sharing the same spatial elements and parts; An alphabet of components adapted to multiple schemes or arrangements. Houses respecting the strict modular framework could be scaled and expanded over time using basic panels catalogued with design features including elements like doors, small windows, or even large curtain walls. Today’s term used to describe this type of customizable pattern language would be: <i>a platform approach to design and construction</i>. The representation manifests a no-frills structure deploying normalized planning principles articulated to a 125mm grid and a night-day segregation elegantly positioning all private spaces around a collective living space extended by an exterior garden. The central bearing wall reduces spans to a manageable 3,75 meters and even demonstrates the ability to assemble this clear-cut plan from two factory-built boxes. The 94 square meter scheme is a superb illustration of a small modern dwelling. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhlcJNxNAqxpeHPpYN8Lov7fxadihXZPMIIvdmyS87pvuqg_lh6pLM1ta6FZv_JuZtQZ1c7yiVVX5lfi9QV0aWzld0DiIBkvfVDbizEW2OR-sNqwt6iUd42F_3ukjGAiSAmGxhkRXxOExM317xJlppysFKYTm6YpsmptrMtg7qKqCldtNshqxIsGUQdaUtw" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1771" data-original-width="3625" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhlcJNxNAqxpeHPpYN8Lov7fxadihXZPMIIvdmyS87pvuqg_lh6pLM1ta6FZv_JuZtQZ1c7yiVVX5lfi9QV0aWzld0DiIBkvfVDbizEW2OR-sNqwt6iUd42F_3ukjGAiSAmGxhkRXxOExM317xJlppysFKYTm6YpsmptrMtg7qKqCldtNshqxIsGUQdaUtw=w640-h312" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Bungalow from Walter Myer-Bohe's Prefabricated Houses (1959)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-48786705113440441102024-03-11T12:17:00.000-07:002024-03-11T12:17:37.393-07:00Prefabrication experiments - 414 - XS(dwellings) - Stardust Container Home<p> </p><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">XS houses are normally associated with mobility or at least transportability. They can be fabricated from lightweight materials to be easily lifted, carried or built like trailers on a mobile chassis ready to be towed to any site. Their flexibility and diminutive size do not impede their more permanent anchorage with regards to views or according to site conditions; even if the structure you are anchoring was originally sized for movement. These tiny houses can also be made from repurposed volumes meant for other applications.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Adapted shipping containers are a case in point and have come to represent a type of subculture dwelling type, recycling the steel boxes as tiny or even large dwellings that stack multiple volumes. Eight feet wide by a standardized length of ten, twenty or forty feet, the conversion from shipping volume into domestic space requires organizations that are both savvy and rational. ISO boxes can be fitted-out and converted-to-order with amenities, insulation, weatherproofing and permanently fixed to a site-built foundation. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Dream Tiny Living, brandishes many container homes; One specific model, The Stardust, stacks a 20’ unit over a 40’ standard shipping container to outline two exterior living spaces: a deck at the front end of the box and a roof terrace above creating a luxurious composition of spaces. As an ADU or as a permanent micro-dwelling, the space gains a full 4’ of exterior living space when the front doors are open. The interior includes, built-in storage units and a small kitchenette aligned with a dining space. A shower and bath space complete the basic enfilade of functions through the 40’ extrusion. A steel staircase adjacent to the container leads up to a second unit and a large roof terrace suited with fit garden furniture to create a roof deck with a Palladian villa vibe floating above the surrounding landscape. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Exposed steel corner posts and fork-lifting apertures ensure the shipping container’s previous function is not forgotten. On the inside, however, the shiplap white timber cladding, elegant finishes, large openings and sliding barn door portray an aesthetic which would be at home in any contemporary setting. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvrrnYb2ufwfdMbs_5sJLVOSO0Fq7rtmqT_q7GRVB8uX9neJ43IMeR7ssc0_NN0OVrKHu-I3TvQi4LuushXIUT-ksYZ8LZIbMB-3IGRYW96E7ZK2kln60aVZ08YBpSNrAu_I4XfbGyXh13wgXt4KQb1rPYcga_OXUk3mOE1w6S87Zz2xzvppM7GrzxXKQc/s3621/414-matrix-containers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1755" data-original-width="3621" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvrrnYb2ufwfdMbs_5sJLVOSO0Fq7rtmqT_q7GRVB8uX9neJ43IMeR7ssc0_NN0OVrKHu-I3TvQi4LuushXIUT-ksYZ8LZIbMB-3IGRYW96E7ZK2kln60aVZ08YBpSNrAu_I4XfbGyXh13wgXt4KQb1rPYcga_OXUk3mOE1w6S87Zz2xzvppM7GrzxXKQc/w640-h310/414-matrix-containers.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Extra-large views in an extra-small frame</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p></div>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-24384676391149837792024-03-06T05:51:00.000-08:002024-03-06T05:51:22.190-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 413 - XS(dwellings) - Nolla: a zero emissions A-frame<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Extra-small permanent dwellings come in many shapes and can often be characterized by their relationship with extraordinary sites. Sheds, cabins, huts are rarely bigger than one room. What they lack in size, they certainly make up for in their relationship to a type of reverie and nostalgia for living modestly anchored to the earth by an extraordinary view, a rocky outcrop, or the silence of wooded homestead. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Originally published in 1943 by Conrad E. Meineke, <i>Your Cabin in the Woods</i> depicted a myriad of small shelters along with their potential benefits for communing with nature, self-building and creating an individual haven. Pages were illustrated with plans and detailed instructions for straightforward builds using the most basic architectural and structural organizations. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">The «Squatter» <i>built in one day by two men</i> used the iconic A-frame structure. The 150 square foot tiny home highlights the triangular structure’s enduring attractiveness : uniting roof and walls, inherently stable, undemanding assemblies and off the shelf timber components easy to source in any context. From early cruck frames deploying divided curved tree trunks to fashion a compressive arch structure, to assembling dimensional timber stock or leaning two prefabricated oblique panels together in equilibrium, the A-frame is potentially the oldest representation of prefabrication as its elements were prepared in advance of their use. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Extra small, the A-frame has certainly had one of the largest symbolic influences on leisure dwelling construction and is still relevant. The Nolla cabin, built in Finland by designer Robin Falck, is a contemporary expression of the Squatter type presented by Meineke over 80 years ago, showcasing its productive legacy. Nolla means zero in Finnish. The one-room shelter reimagines the A-frame as a modern off-grid - low emissions micro-dwelling. Fashioned entirely of pine and plywood, rafters are fixed to the bottom chord of the composing triangle truss with reinforcing plywood gusset plates. Extending oblique members are adjusted to and lift the cabin over any setting. All components can be precut, flatpacked and delivered to any site. No specialized details and the didactic nature of the triangle truss make it a breeze to build and to comprehend. </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBqazBWttEPgEjejQ2YN0rR_OCCJ3xrHOqwq_v_Pe0VIqZM-fHu3MFJs0R2Hx09Y1e8GJ8_fUCT5abzvpnStNQ1BFnI2CG2ReJPZUjuCUMRH4p6nkltc_E5xAVW_BAwp2C7dMWsrPwcLD53EvgxRNX79YPSA0947hW814XgAVSriFm21wYpL91-Qk2mgj/s3632/413-Nolla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1786" data-original-width="3632" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBqazBWttEPgEjejQ2YN0rR_OCCJ3xrHOqwq_v_Pe0VIqZM-fHu3MFJs0R2Hx09Y1e8GJ8_fUCT5abzvpnStNQ1BFnI2CG2ReJPZUjuCUMRH4p6nkltc_E5xAVW_BAwp2C7dMWsrPwcLD53EvgxRNX79YPSA0947hW814XgAVSriFm21wYpL91-Qk2mgj/w640-h314/413-Nolla.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Nolla, a reconceptualized A-frame for contemporary leisure</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-US"><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-23441525226511990642024-03-01T07:00:00.000-08:002024-03-01T07:00:14.071-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 412 - XS (dwellings) - Hitching a home<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The ability to carry a home to any setting according to basic needs, employment opportunities, economic challenges, for leisure or simply to respond to a transient lifestyle is an enduring vernacular in architecture. Rational dimensions and ease of assembly/disassembly matters when it comes to moveable dwellings. Freedom will always be dependent on lugging capacity, trail accessibility and material constraints. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The trailer home is the icon of movability and minimal dwelling aspirations. As early twentieth century automobile manufacturing improved, it inspired many to use this newfound affordable mobility to envision hitching houses to Henry Ford’s assembly line principles. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Pioneer Arthur Sherman first built a box timber-frame trailer for a family camping trip in the early 1930s. The 3-meter long x 1.8-meter wide no frills volume included sleeping bunks, a coal burning stove and a rear trap door to reveal an exterior kitchen increasing livability. Sherman’s trailers became so popular that the simple camping unit became the sustaining product of a prosperous 3-million-dollar company by 1936 selling 6000 box trailers. The mobile home is still one of the most successful products of industrialized housing. Manufacturing on a portable foundation, a steel skeleton, is certainly an intelligent way of travelling but is also a manufacturing «coup de génie» as the product moves around the workshop on a stable, working surface. Whether produced on a linear line or in a cellular production process, once finished, the house is simply hitched and carried away. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Both conventional factory-built mobile homes and homemade tiny house trailers can afford luxuries found in permanent housing including push-out spaces, fully functional kitchens and even second story spaces. Some contemporary models are veritable rolling villas that have little to do with the liberties associated with XS dwellings.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">From Sherman’s modest solution for leisure to subsequent 10’ wide and 12’ wide evolutions proposed by another pioneer Elmer Frey, the mobile home is a testament to the American speculator exploring opportunities and valuing housing as non-site-specific commodity; a conceptualization that has led to negative subtexts at odds with a longstanding architectural position of dwellings’ necessary anchorage to the spirit of a place. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlQgGrTJWTFDbMpBl0Z9reUVHERq2U3IILQadgXn9n4S5QsItITmUnuJVUwwHZFFY9PgUOjl3swhRRV4ShWZEBNU62W2jVEcHb579sP-ub-h0KpPrH6lDmBeYEmu9_qPuDejXi1-Ahm5yv7xsJkF4AIJcGke2mmFY3bCD9OYxJC5qbZqScAIe8V0o_lkN7/s3633/412-mobility.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1767" data-original-width="3633" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlQgGrTJWTFDbMpBl0Z9reUVHERq2U3IILQadgXn9n4S5QsItITmUnuJVUwwHZFFY9PgUOjl3swhRRV4ShWZEBNU62W2jVEcHb579sP-ub-h0KpPrH6lDmBeYEmu9_qPuDejXi1-Ahm5yv7xsJkF4AIJcGke2mmFY3bCD9OYxJC5qbZqScAIe8V0o_lkN7/w640-h312/412-mobility.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Rollohome movable dwelling as an example of XS-S dwellings</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><p></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-88610201262987049172024-02-21T07:46:00.000-08:002024-02-21T07:46:56.507-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 411 - XS (dwellings) - Sanyo Living Pod<p> </p><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Extra-small housing encompasses any dwelling that is small enough to be labelled as a tiny house or a micro dwelling, usually between 10 to 40 m<sup>2</sup>, roughly the size of one or two rooms. XS housing archetypes can be set up as single family or multifamily dwellings when aggregated as kernels in patterns highlighted by Japanese Metabolist architecture. Geared for mobility, they abrogate permanent anchoring associated with conventional housing construction. Micro-dwellings can be both self-propelled and hitched. Today’s comprehensively commodified culture associated with intelligent connected objects has renewed interest for integrated capsule dwellings ready for purchase and delivery. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Notwithstanding current interest in tiny homes, Capsules are a product of modernist design principles. The machine for living evolved into the optimistic and space age architectural imagery diffused post-World War 2. Not exclusive to Japan's design culture, capsules were however propagandized during the Expo70 international World Fair presented in Osaka, Japan under the planning authority of Metabolist architect Kenzō Tange. The exhibit theme «Progress and Harmony of Mankind» underlined the high-tech culture fostered through Japan's major support of automation and manufacturing methodologies applied to housing production. Japan’s prefab housing industry progressed and exalted prefab capsules as a serialized product incorporating technological advancements. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Case in Point, Sanyo, an electronics producer showcased their living pod during Expo70. The micro-unit suggested a future of technological integration in every part of our homes with electronic baths, television sets and mobile communications. The Sanyo Living Capsule, a spherical individually sized biosphere, also labelled as the Health Capsule, synthesized every living function in one extra-small ergonomic form. Perfected living conditions, light, atmosphere, heat, and ventilation were automatically controlled and would remain at monitored levels. Mass-manufacturable, they could be adapted for any collective support structure. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The recent demolition of the Nagakin Capsule Tower stipulated a pragmatic end to the capsule culture associated with 1970s Japan. Still, the XS housing pod continues to be linked to prefabrication. Its diminutive size agues for and makes it feasible to control and finish work in a factory setting leaving minimal disturbance and simplified infrastructure connections to the job site. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiSEoTFhYJ6OCqGHbrEj0Uq9F_DnWlEyGd_oha63TAT15gUQMqu5WIpVZvDhVT3MTOW3e99FenlEYMQuJlYkJ4n99pVsVtd0aaUDnAzGKNA-sEus14J90zU17knCUPh1cQNAT8lhB2CzlXD2cAPgVfNZe1-lsJ5pMpzXSwt_2eEpZThSz4h3PRp2stNCmJ/s3628/411-sanyo-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1765" data-original-width="3628" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiSEoTFhYJ6OCqGHbrEj0Uq9F_DnWlEyGd_oha63TAT15gUQMqu5WIpVZvDhVT3MTOW3e99FenlEYMQuJlYkJ4n99pVsVtd0aaUDnAzGKNA-sEus14J90zU17knCUPh1cQNAT8lhB2CzlXD2cAPgVfNZe1-lsJ5pMpzXSwt_2eEpZThSz4h3PRp2stNCmJ/w640-h312/411-sanyo-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sanyo Living Pod placed within a housing typological matrix</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p></div>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-32011450064981566512024-02-13T12:42:00.000-08:002024-02-13T12:42:53.053-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 410 - Modern Modular : Housing and Offsite Construction 4.0<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The association of housing supply with offsite construction has been described as a union of reason. Notwithstanding prefab's potential considering the high levels of repeatability, the industry is still characterized by one-off projects - prototypes - even though details, components, arrangements, and materials affirm consistency. For varied scopes and scales the argument in favour of offsite is increased affordability, sustainability, productivity, and quality through systematized processes. Current design digitalization supplemented by democratized digital fabrication technologies suggest possibilities for outlining parametric cataloguing and modelling of housing systems outlined by reproducible configurations. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Resolution 4 Architecture's «modern modular» approach examines these potential links between architectural housing arrangements and modular volumetric building dimensional criteria. While their mass-customizable schemes expose the idealized perfect storm driving current offsite constructions uptake, prefabrication and housing have been similarly federated before. From a precisely modern perspective, diverse housing typologies were devised to organize prefabrication's theories to address past housing crises. The mobile home, Levittown bungalows, Metabolist capsules and most notably the slab panel block, pointed to mass-manufacturing to simplify supply of affordable dwellings. These proposals were developed for two urban forms: suburbanization valued the bungalow's seriality and ambitious postwar urban renewal guided the development of the panelized block. The entire spectrum between individual and collective was explored by architects or inventors to reform housing from vernacular construction to standardized processes citing the advantages industrialization brought to other consumer goods. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Resolution 4 Architecture's exploration renews these patterns by providing a glimpse into how contemporary digitalization can inform a conceptual framework for housing. The catalogue of modules contains basic «manufacturable» fragments for users to customize their own home as one would aggregate building blocks, composing a home from predetermined integrated chunks. As manufacturing in architecture can be linked to both Ford's assembly line (component catalogues) and Toyota's production system (lean construction), the current era of smart technologies is propelling a new generation of prefab ideas. Open-source software development theories have already spawned prototypes like the Wikihouse and other digitally conceived catalogues that pursue the enduring objective of reasoning architecture through generative tessellations.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoq4-S9mjfHpZKbAr9prE3K-ni_dK6hmNmYT7iOT1AYJgqS9GGT8TK6UGE0YdW7mN2wbHlunD5E-dj8hUjA444yXOiS3rA81vRbuuDdD4oqMGqR19pWn4Df7Icaz2rl8U6cjPB8cZSjyhjVieibRBWto17MOx6MUAu7nI1ke8uVnCcWzISrzhChR31W9lf/s1131/410typology-matrix2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="868" data-original-width="1131" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoq4-S9mjfHpZKbAr9prE3K-ni_dK6hmNmYT7iOT1AYJgqS9GGT8TK6UGE0YdW7mN2wbHlunD5E-dj8hUjA444yXOiS3rA81vRbuuDdD4oqMGqR19pWn4Df7Icaz2rl8U6cjPB8cZSjyhjVieibRBWto17MOx6MUAu7nI1ke8uVnCcWzISrzhChR31W9lf/w640-h492/410typology-matrix2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Typological matrix by Resolution 4 Architecture <a href="https://www.re4a.com/the-modern-modular">https://www.re4a.com/the-modern-modular</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-6028148443569121582024-02-06T05:25:00.000-08:002024-02-06T05:25:10.396-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 409 - Housing affordability through prefab ?<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Prefabrication, offsite construction, and industrialized building systems are high on everyone's agenda for tackling affordability in housing. In print, on the web or even on the evening news, age-old strategies are being discussed to address systemic issues augmenting the present crisis' increasing acuteness. From catalogues of pre-approved designs to standardized dwelling blocks, policy makers are scrambling to increase supply as construction costs keep rising. Prefabrication is being promoted as a way of reducing timelines and costs up to 50%; Suggesting unrealistic promises based on reduced planning as projects will be repeated from site to site with little variations. This idealized view of prefabrication is how the unfavorable preconceptions toward industrialized construction evolved: shoddy cookie-cutter models produced quickly and cheaply often also implying weaker designs. The truth is, when done well, prefabrication can be beautiful and contribute to a setting’s heritage along with optimizing both costs and schedules. Seriality or even standardization do not imply banality; Good design can be produced for the masses.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Certain elements can certainly be repeated from project to project; however, architecture is anchored to a particular place that implies detailed planning to respond to zoning, climate, structural criteria, or material restrictions. These conditions enumerate a few site-specific elements that can’t be standardized. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So, can prefabrication contribute to addressing the housing crisis? Guidelines should consider holistic and integrated supply chains with stakeholders, from manufacturers to professionals discussing potentials honestly without the need to promote or demote offsite with outdated attitudes or untenable promises. Prefabrication and offsite can be an important component in reducing waste while controlling quality. Adapting manufacturing methods to make building parts is already used in the industry for all disparate components needed to assemble a building. A breakthrough would offer complete subassemblies that reduce on site labor to a minimum and standardize shared processes through developing patterns for customizable designs. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In similar times of crisis, architects imagined factory production as a tool for increasing production capacity. The next blog posts will share some housing proposals according to their scale and relative success in applying mass production strategies to the architecture of dwellings. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-aHK16rPiK9yhiqCLH40ql8EEDjGI1RVOLAV4HC7YbhqjoLwqbxEpLkVy8iQiUJpxZEnYfBCio28A5n_CSdhilnqBddNrNMwLbRXGJAE9TMYtiD8H3wJuYek92G2EpOVjsQNnFj57BghOYSI4HGba2p06sMiOEvGKKkAXv5Rvpm7xNxfY-be0q4HxRUwb/s600/409-levittown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="600" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-aHK16rPiK9yhiqCLH40ql8EEDjGI1RVOLAV4HC7YbhqjoLwqbxEpLkVy8iQiUJpxZEnYfBCio28A5n_CSdhilnqBddNrNMwLbRXGJAE9TMYtiD8H3wJuYek92G2EpOVjsQNnFj57BghOYSI4HGba2p06sMiOEvGKKkAXv5Rvpm7xNxfY-be0q4HxRUwb/w400-h306/409-levittown.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mass produced components for a Levittown bungalow</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-86891859855598178372024-01-30T08:53:00.000-08:002024-01-30T08:53:49.896-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 408 - Kit-of-parts and Standardization<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jaimie Johnston, Head of Global Systems at Bryden Wood and Design Lead for the Construction Innovation Hub, has spoken enthusiastically about the changes taking place within the construction industry, specifically the shift toward offsite construction. The Bryden Wood approach is articulated to the same kit-of-parts strategy deployed for post-war housing crises but described in contemporary terms. The current Modern Methods of Construction / Platform construction space, suggested by Johnston and his firm influenced the UK Government’s Construction Playbook, whose core policy «harmonize, digitize and rationalize demand» creates new opportunities to apply a consistent set of technical standards to assets being built across a given sector. This «platform» level of standardization has the capability to streamline design and construction, giving the industry a lever to scale supply. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Johnston defines this standardized, foundational approach as a springboard, setting up the prospect of working with more sophisticated industrialized manufacturing methodologies like DfMA. The idea of standardization is important for achieving economies but should not be an obstacle to architectural innovation. Efficient production applied to building must be done the right way including all stakeholders including the creativity that goes along with architectural design. The standard, normalized, terminology associated with past prefab experiments has long challenged offsite uptake to reform construction. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The kit-of-parts or platform DfMA processes do not refer to the end products (traditional or alternative structures), but rather to the design criteria and choices marking-out building needs. As such, the kit-of-parts methodology does not relate to one strategy either modular or panelized but to a symbiotic use of materials and assemblies to facilitate everything from supply chain management to onsite coordination. Each industrialized construction strategy can be looked at as a tool in the overall construction process adapting to projects, sites, and functional requirements, reforming the «silo» nature of the construction ecosystem; Platforms are toolkits for building singular projects from cooperating sources. Whatever vocabulary is used to portray a novel approach to industrialized construction the underlying benefits of standardization are clear: sharing and defining elemental logistics across multiple projects increases efficiencies at every level.</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm2z7imXNjBkjSJDOh9c8xuUihcSGlNgu1MFtRqRVn041i7uzh74k-65fLR4iN2IpmjWk_Mn7PWIcrG699bNRRf17yeu1Ig6w14XgFYJbZ0yRuOMKrUljLM-bw4Mt6_dkyGE8lnCX65E9OI-iNafTqmRaKH9t4GAbowmXwgslf0HNFdUo265oQxWdeoaNH/s512/modular-platform.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="512" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm2z7imXNjBkjSJDOh9c8xuUihcSGlNgu1MFtRqRVn041i7uzh74k-65fLR4iN2IpmjWk_Mn7PWIcrG699bNRRf17yeu1Ig6w14XgFYJbZ0yRuOMKrUljLM-bw4Mt6_dkyGE8lnCX65E9OI-iNafTqmRaKH9t4GAbowmXwgslf0HNFdUo265oQxWdeoaNH/w400-h224/modular-platform.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Modular vehicle platform</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-14652162871614307302024-01-22T12:52:00.000-08:002024-01-22T12:52:41.317-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 407 - Incremental Housing<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: arial;">Open Building theory encompasses several concepts that mark out a prospective systemic adaptability in a building’s design and production: modular construction details, flexible planning principles and user participation. Founded on the idea that malleable and interoperable systems could evolve readily according to changing needs or requirements during a building's lifespan, the theory recommends fluid or circular processes rather than fixed linear ones. Planning for change in function and lifestyle requires a holistic view of how patterns fluctuate over time. Open building protagonists have developed products, techniques, and methods to mitigate the waste that usually goes along with inevitable change. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: arial;">Two approaches that are sometimes related to open building and adapting to change are unfinished housing and core-housing which relate to the supply of necessary functional elements around which a more complex system could stem. Both strategies are extracted from understanding that populations might not have the resources or the need to build a complete housing infrastructure from the onset. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: arial;">Incremental housing, a combination of unfinished and core, has been promoted by Priztker Prize winning architect, Alejandro Aravena in multiple projects as an instruction manual to develop resilient communities from first core-service elements to planning strategies for aggregating all appended spaces over time. A series of predetermined elements (basic needs) designed as linear, radial, or dynamic arrangements outline networks onto which private and individual units can organically take shape matching their community’s evolutions. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Incremental housing also involves indetermined spaces that are added, adapted, constructed, or deconstructed over time. Gradual adaptations link two complementary spaces, a first step core and an adjacent flexible space. From this simple juxtaposition, neighborhoods could expand horizontally or vertically. This core principle has informed many experiments in developing countries where informal or even crisis planning principles sometimes impede the bulk supply and rationalized procurement of edifices. Planning informal, undetermined infrastructure over 5, 10,15 years commands systematic governance where inhabitants are given authority over certain types of changes made to their environment while other modifications are approved by the group. A symbiotic relationship between collective and individual is the most basic criteria of incremental house planning. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdCELO9k6lwKuvRAbynYNtMOsn1lmRQPi1LflZP_jA56o0LsQDxjsbQRoDh4y9fhyGCtDsTt2HAAoTLbhCXkSe6A45vI12JV81R9Sykrp67HSSzFQDR1qtHYo-_6K9jFwhyphenhyphenuotnqqBgujCro5V8nFc3atKiM9kWVQvwrS2iBimzl0HbuHMFdUB3kZ-V4Z-/s3475/407-final.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2845" data-original-width="3475" height="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdCELO9k6lwKuvRAbynYNtMOsn1lmRQPi1LflZP_jA56o0LsQDxjsbQRoDh4y9fhyGCtDsTt2HAAoTLbhCXkSe6A45vI12JV81R9Sykrp67HSSzFQDR1qtHYo-_6K9jFwhyphenhyphenuotnqqBgujCro5V8nFc3atKiM9kWVQvwrS2iBimzl0HbuHMFdUB3kZ-V4Z-/w640-h524/407-final.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Top: Incremental Housing by Elemental<br />Bottom: Incremental housing principles - <br />Module https://moduledesign.weebly.com/incremental-housing.html<br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><p></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-46250877821326532162024-01-18T04:54:00.000-08:002024-01-18T04:54:13.003-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 406 - Modular naval construction as a model<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Industrialized building / offsite construction protagonists have contemplated successes in bordering industries for inventiveness to increase productivity in construction. Automobile manufacturing served as one of the earliest benchmarks of serial fabrication potentially suitable for architecture. Assembly line principles led to the development of the mobile home and later to more factory intensive building systems, namely heavy precast panels in Germany, France and beyond. Recent digital advances in manufacturing methodologies have reinvigorated the links with car production as an icon of platform thinking, making differentiated products from the same composing parts, underbellies, or chassis. Aeronautics has also been projected onto building production as planes are assembled with large factory-made hunks that are seamlessly integrated according to models, known as digital or fabrication twins. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Perhaps the most compelling comparison is with shipbuilding, as it has evolved into a type of coordinated stacking of big chunks inspiring construction of buildings with similar large-scale factory-finished boxes. An example of multi-trade prefabrication or near-ship prefabrication, parts are fashioned into large blocks which are then assembled as a complete hull. Further, shipbuilding, especially cruise ship building, addresses the same challenges posed by buildings, as they are basically large floating hotels with spaces, functions and even components that collective housing blocks include. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Modularity in shipbuilding is also suggested as a way of reducing costs, delays and waste associated with complete ship overhauls to face changing and evolving needs. As in buildings, ship life spans can be increased substantially by integrating intelligent assembly and disassembly principles to make any modifications or updates simpler. Interoperable components, dimensional coordination, plug and play self-contained boxes and repeatable ship segments that can be used across multiple crafts are all elements that cross the boundary between naval architecture and building design. Commonalities between ships can be typical galleys, medical facilities, rooms, and service cores that can be designed to fit into multiple ships distributing their planning costs over multiple product lines. This modularity and platform theory applied in naval yards is seen as a strategy to combat premature obsolescence and to harmonize complex supply chains, an estimable model for modular buildings. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtOkqJ3kb7l1eOu8wMVHJ5MKGy_zcOnPNHMb-AA7Rjvley7SS5hyEMF3PFXF0ndg173GicsjfwwN-5nETq8s0hAKbBOhP0fWXVd_hSstV3CkcjDJZewZfRAXTPXK-HYJxABntt1T9GxEvIAZ04_CnJwL3np-MocjuANbeFjGez6UL9RzCjKF8bF8cGoZeU/s1055/406Modular.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="1055" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtOkqJ3kb7l1eOu8wMVHJ5MKGy_zcOnPNHMb-AA7Rjvley7SS5hyEMF3PFXF0ndg173GicsjfwwN-5nETq8s0hAKbBOhP0fWXVd_hSstV3CkcjDJZewZfRAXTPXK-HYJxABntt1T9GxEvIAZ04_CnJwL3np-MocjuANbeFjGez6UL9RzCjKF8bF8cGoZeU/w640-h452/406Modular.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An example of modular ship hull composition</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-86656622048344994422024-01-09T06:10:00.000-08:002024-01-09T06:10:49.125-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 405 - Interior Partition Systems<p> </p><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Current practices and literature affirm the construction industry’s wastefulness and suggest that adaptability policies, while adopted marginally, can reduce waste during an edifice’s lifespan. Walls and partitions are still fashioned with plasterboard to be surfaced with joint compound and then painted. Conventional methods impede any changes over time without messy demolition. Streamlined construction has resisted the potentials of simple dry reversible connections and components. Designed-in malleability could make an important contribution to buildings’ interior systems evolution. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Buildings functional evolution over time, constantly requires some wall relocation or reorganization. These reworkings fill dumps as internal rearranging of service spaces can occur every 10-15 years, sometimes even more frequently. Programming or including dry construction / reversible assemblies in wall erection reduces required demolition, new resource harvesting and material refuse.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This is not a new idea. In the early 1970s Nijhuis Bouw BV a Dutch builder proposed a manufactured partition system: the <i>4 dee Inbouw</i>. The wall kits included all framing, floor sills, top plates, and variable infill opaque or transparent patterns. All system elements adhered to a modular grid of 30cm with two height options, 2,4 or 2,6 m. A basic 1,2m wide panel, composed of 4 grid modules, slid into removable floor, and ceiling channels, making the system fully relocatable. Suggesting a more circular approach to construction, impermanent partition systems can reduce a building’s environmental footprint as materials can be recovered and employed over multiple life cycles reforming the extract, use, dispose methodology that characterizes modern construction. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">DIRTT is a Canadian company commercializing the same type of panelized wall kit to facilitate long term flexibility. The multi-trade interior construction system is related to Nijhuis' system, components for framing are dry assembled and can be as easily disassembled as they are assembled. DIRTT takes the idea one step further in panel customization: A vast cloud catalogue of materials and finishes make the system fully mass customizable using the company's planning software to streamline the planning, fabrication, delivery, and assembly process.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1HiDkk2yBy0SY4Q9d13df98wy5nFRXSR3vVbe0-2ZtwdawFSX6TuA2QmNcBazGfPgL-NSLMsjp2S6tXt01NPaQzybdRY_LiMzSm-7zdnNBtFhFN-Xl-Lv7tPln31LoYMCPGjmYFW0K0V2c2VZ8pM1ogcXUodXgm2dg2982tRZqZCN2HoOACNU7NRfw803/s3300/405-partitions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1824" data-original-width="3300" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1HiDkk2yBy0SY4Q9d13df98wy5nFRXSR3vVbe0-2ZtwdawFSX6TuA2QmNcBazGfPgL-NSLMsjp2S6tXt01NPaQzybdRY_LiMzSm-7zdnNBtFhFN-Xl-Lv7tPln31LoYMCPGjmYFW0K0V2c2VZ8pM1ogcXUodXgm2dg2982tRZqZCN2HoOACNU7NRfw803/w640-h354/405-partitions.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left: 4 Dee Inbouw system; Right: DIRTT's multi-trade interior construction system</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p></div>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-79968247968851196902023-12-27T10:56:00.000-08:002023-12-27T10:56:08.926-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 404 - Open-source kit from Schemata Workshop<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Industrialized building systems, the topic of abundant literature, are inspiring a new generation toward a revolution in construction. Accentuated by digital manufacturing concepts, modern processes can alter both design and building production. DfMA, «platform» methodologies, or offsite, are all discussed as innovative prefabrication theories improving construction’s stagnating productivity and have increased mainstream attention for preparing building chunks in factories. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Recent, significant venture capital investments have identified offsite as perhaps the next Klondike or at least the sole remaining sector to have escaped high value industrialization; According to many, construction industrialization’s day has finally come. Even architectural firms that have contested the standardization associated with factory produced architecture are suggesting prefab as a better design/building/business model.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Schemata workshop, a Seattle, USA based design firm has developed two systems that transcribe digital potentials for design. The first developed with manufacturer Dogwood industries is an integrated service core known as Middlemod. The consortium-based business, Building and Module Manufacturing LLC (BAMM) unites architects and fabricators in a limited liability partnership. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The modular core is designed to fit into any construction system and can adapt to multiple spatial arrangements. The unit is planned to maximize factory preassembly, facilitate just-in-time delivery to any site with simple plug-and-play utility connections, and optimize virtual coordination. The MIddlemod concept sometimes also known as a combo-pod includes kitchen, bath, and utility room.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The firm’s other product is a component-based structural frame and kit that speeds up design by systematizing parts, construction, and assembly details from project to project. The steel skeletal and panelized building system includes envelope segments, windows, PV panels for energy production and mechanical distribution in a digital distributable format. The open-source methodology intends to bring affordability to housing production by multiplying the number of projects using the same parts, exploiting serial production. Schemata Workshop along with their partners envisioned this construction system to reduce waste at all project stages.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">While promising in theory, the open-source concept applied to architecture is still relatively marginal. However, firms like Elemental, 369 pattern buildings and even Wikihouse share innovative building ideas and improve them through harvesting crowd iterations. The digital revolution applied to prefab suggests these platform-based directions to help the building sector at last adhere to industrialization’s promised advantages.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiCODhk3aqn64zRXG3lj7DXoRKCSLf_HYv1kqiZWOKbI1mghRUFPDkCuoxAIPGlnrbZfn96L1baTIOyHvt-c3y9NNrOQJQyviM65bHpB1ZOsOdDqTOW6GsC931h0d0IZzxa7v-tmRVcX5qD6vQ5PUZlLXvPxT80TLhCnPxV11jsCkDEJhyD7v07zpx-7ea/s4569/404-schemata.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1625" data-original-width="4569" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiCODhk3aqn64zRXG3lj7DXoRKCSLf_HYv1kqiZWOKbI1mghRUFPDkCuoxAIPGlnrbZfn96L1baTIOyHvt-c3y9NNrOQJQyviM65bHpB1ZOsOdDqTOW6GsC931h0d0IZzxa7v-tmRVcX5qD6vQ5PUZlLXvPxT80TLhCnPxV11jsCkDEJhyD7v07zpx-7ea/w640-h228/404-schemata.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">left: Combo pod; right: Kit-of-parts</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-84634257943140004742023-12-21T12:36:00.000-08:002023-12-21T12:36:04.473-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 403 - Lego Block Modularity<p> </p><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a name="OLE_LINK1"></a><a name="OLE_LINK2"><span lang="EN-CA">Growing, scaling, and adapting homes according to evolving needs can be governed by systemic modularity. Potentially outlining the intensified use of industrialized building methods for affordable housing, modular flexibility positions standardized or regulated design strategies as well as interoperable sub-assemblies toward many variable housing arrangements. Dimensional coordination, repeating parts and details frame the principles of this ingrained adaptability. Interchangeable pieces and even spaces can sequence generative criteria according to functional parameters. Modularity combined with service distribution grids and networks can structure element-based schemes combining, aligning, stacking, and juxtaposing room fragments or mechanical units to personalize dwelling design. <o:p></o:p></span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: arial;">A group of researchers in South Korea has explored a type of space-block modularity in a core house system. The proposal is conceptually like other core-housing prototypes; The systematized one-storey boxes about the size of a common room surround service spaces. Each box is attached with a vertical sliding lock mechanism used to stitch the system into a single family or multi-unit residential building. The locking curtain wall uses a combination of extrusions that friction-fit and slip together. Their ease of assembly is also reversible making it possible to move entire wall planes to respond to new or evolving family dynamics. Stair or roof segments complete the dwellings and conform to a set of design rules and dimensional conditions. Technical core spaces include services in a centralized, linear, or even cross pattern; organisations can branch out into larger tract housing subdivisions which link the core dwellings with an underlaid urban distribution. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: arial;">Pushing this concept even further the proposal includes energy independence using solar roof panels for electricity and central distribution of other active energy systems. The expanding housing kernels can be multiplied in all directions from the focalized hub unit displaying the analogy to Lego Blocks. The overall modular composition could feasibly be assembled using mass-produced boxes or even reuse existing segments and sections from dwellings that downsize and no longer require all their initial components. Uniting flexibility with adaptability makes this type of scalable system potentially mass manufacturable to optimally control construction costs, increased scalability and quality by monitoring all aspects of the product’s fabrication.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEufknwP92vqz5ZXD47o4BFCb4nd5CZzVOAw_SA3TeeiYCVN3bWM89mCaV7gU051XdTtJDDupldl4EjXzBTDDthJrMrtc912mhF6x3EuR1fvMg6NzSkVVINebVvpJV616XTtvWMy0-aMF0zZbfs_DvXq8vlU9lJNbf19ob24NkatdbmDdDLTlW3Zm2V9DX/s3745/403-modulairy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1675" data-original-width="3745" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEufknwP92vqz5ZXD47o4BFCb4nd5CZzVOAw_SA3TeeiYCVN3bWM89mCaV7gU051XdTtJDDupldl4EjXzBTDDthJrMrtc912mhF6x3EuR1fvMg6NzSkVVINebVvpJV616XTtvWMy0-aMF0zZbfs_DvXq8vlU9lJNbf19ob24NkatdbmDdDLTlW3Zm2V9DX/w400-h179/403-modulairy.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">See full article at </span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/20/5561" style="color: #954f72;"><span style="font-family: arial;">https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/20/5561</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA"><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p></div>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-51975192830967198692023-12-13T12:23:00.000-08:002023-12-13T12:23:31.633-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 402 - Aqueduct House<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><a name="OLE_LINK1"></a><a name="OLE_LINK2"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Service circulation is a multifaceted and unavoidable part of building construction often studied too simplistically when designing industrialized building systems. Except for service cores which integrate disparate technical elements in a manufactured hub or pod, strategies for networking services over multiple homes or types is limited; Off-site construction using mechanical pods is habitually applied to distinct constructions. Multi storey dwelling blocks usually use similar core principles to stack multiple apartments' kitchens or baths to rationalize piping through vertical chases. Scaling or imagining these practices for civil infrastructure could lead to more efficiently sharing amenities and a more integrated approach to community planning including standardized and shareable schemes. <o:p></o:p></span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Servicing dwellings cost-effectively becomes particularly critical in contexts where facilities and their democratization are sparse, at best. Developing countries facing housing crises or building in remote locations require concepts that make allotment of power and water supply or disposal the basic framework of community planning. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Alejandro Aravena's Elemental practice has made sharing universally resilient housing designs based on combining industrialized and low-teck solutions a staple of multiple proposals. Perhaps, best known for their Villa Verde scheme in Chile where occupants could personalize half of a core-dwelling prototype, the firm has deployed similar adaptable principles for larger housing tracts. Their ambitious speculative proposal, Aqueduct House, suggests civil engineering elements, sidewalks and paths, to equip a linear urban plan: A sidewalk and a first-floor girder span multiple lots as box beams or caissons forming a continuous duct line and a common support system. The reinforced concrete tubes channel mechanical elements across divided parcels to align a band of flexible townhouse spaces. Demising rectangular concrete columns indicate property lines and support the concrete beam onto which other urban elements such as lighting can be connected. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As in most other core housing prototypes, occupants play a major role in the construction of their dwellings, their evolution, and their community development. The brutalist overhead conduit is proposed as an assembly of modular concrete elements; a type of kit-of-parts civil power bar that could be set up and branched out in any context.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzMvWloq8WK1lN9aqZf2H3IIfx-GIXQ7EeCrKhyphenhyphenYFJxTf4jAojJ9MqGdo1HgSUqY_eXu_LwdRPXpiApKWKKvASU9wQ_k1WJsZvaALeJf7aj9qxMRFStsVeQwEfZAM0A5HIQXORueHynk3yXFmgX2V0FKZheW8-PTVXbz9eraUgV0xiiU4IfxPsKjHjEYfV/s1669/402-aqueduct.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1188" data-original-width="1669" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzMvWloq8WK1lN9aqZf2H3IIfx-GIXQ7EeCrKhyphenhyphenYFJxTf4jAojJ9MqGdo1HgSUqY_eXu_LwdRPXpiApKWKKvASU9wQ_k1WJsZvaALeJf7aj9qxMRFStsVeQwEfZAM0A5HIQXORueHynk3yXFmgX2V0FKZheW8-PTVXbz9eraUgV0xiiU4IfxPsKjHjEYfV/w400-h285/402-aqueduct.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elemental's Aqueduct House proposal</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-70612015775410287072023-12-04T10:41:00.000-08:002023-12-04T10:41:53.560-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 401 - Open-source service core<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the field of prefabrication or offsite construction, one concept above all others, has been discussed, tried, and tested, from both architectural and industrial perspectives: the service core. Rationalized as the dwelling’s technical heart, the central appliance, engine, or hub projected all wet and technical spaces within an integrated factory-produced unit. Other conventional systems for structure, skin and circulation would surround these cores in an on and off-site hybridization. Visions of the core proposed plug-in pods containing baths, kitchens, and other mechanical spaces to service flexible arrangements radiating from a productive nucleus. Sometimes compared to subassembly components in vehicle manufacturing, the core implies the same harmonized supply chains for its commercialization.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">The idea has not evolved much since the beginning of the twentieth century’s first experiments. A non-exhaustive list of cores <a href="https://www.arcc-journal.org/index.php/arccjournal/article/view/426" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.arcc-journal.org/index.php/arccjournal/article/view/426</a> outlines suggested theories and practical applications. While mostly imagined as vertical elements, Italian architect Carlo Ratti known for his ideas and projects uniting design with open-source methodologies has developed a unique take on the core. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Working with not-for-profit Indian firm Werise, the team created a prototype horizontal core inspired by a computer motherboard analogy where the utilitarian plane constitutes the platform of a user-centric housing configuration. The mother board is part of a core-house strategy providing an integrated service space approximately 12 square meters (3m x 4m) encompassing the dwelling’s technical elements from batteries for electricity to water filtration, storage, and distribution. From this generative cartridge, the house can evolve in any direction while being hooked-up to the power panel. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Proposed as a flatpacked easy to deliver subassembly, the thick floorplate also elevates interior spaces from the surrounding landscape, providing services, protection and a place marker. The <i>LivingBoard</i> transposes ideas used within the maker movement to empower users to foster tools and devices from simple to use components; Arduino boards are probably the closest analogy to Ratti's living board as they can be tuned to accomplish a variety of programmable tasks. Ratti estimates that his version of a horizontal service core can simplify the house design, procurement and building process. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5D1hohcGFSrSmQdQVk1Mv8tqSD_g3ftPT7dwOAOX2M1faukl0S1rghDntU-mBqVC0b52yPoCu2ZrNWVIjDm3192CQ4ypgOg_VvEvi2j6rLd2EtHnEim_c6Tgp5VWla29KI3Wfi-UHvIVf2wtI9gSc_nOGmJ4Admc97-sCf6MlUFotsqVtp2pm5WqMTQms/s2204/401Ratti.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2204" data-original-width="1704" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5D1hohcGFSrSmQdQVk1Mv8tqSD_g3ftPT7dwOAOX2M1faukl0S1rghDntU-mBqVC0b52yPoCu2ZrNWVIjDm3192CQ4ypgOg_VvEvi2j6rLd2EtHnEim_c6Tgp5VWla29KI3Wfi-UHvIVf2wtI9gSc_nOGmJ4Admc97-sCf6MlUFotsqVtp2pm5WqMTQms/w309-h400/401Ratti.jpeg" width="309" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Living Board schematic</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p></div>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-56109679825762898792023-11-27T07:48:00.000-08:002023-11-27T07:48:02.331-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 400 - Open Manufacturing<div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: arial;">Industrialization altered the way everything was fabricated. Factories became the locus of commercializing everything from utensils to pharmaceuticals, building parts and automobiles. In generally closed loops, businesses safeguarded their commodities and methods through patents and protectionist attitudes underwritten by privatisation. Strategies were outlined to give each corporation a competitive edge over their peers. Design and manufacturing were trademarked, intraoperable and exclusive only to internal stakeholders. Methodological frameworks from Ford to Toyota envisioned their production secrets as their very ethos and core of their potential economic successes. This closed manufacturing is the emblem of industrialization, and of the free market economy. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: arial;">Digital principles and societies’ crises are challenging these closed loops in favour of shared access to crowd iterations. Many have been inspired by the open-source revolution in software to apply the same interoperable freedom to hardware and to a diversity of manufacturing sectors. Known as open manufacturing or open factories, these attitudes harness the power of commonalities, democratized designs, innovative processes, and shared research infrastructure crosspollinated across customarily private lines. Trade associations can play an important role in the suggestion of normalized and acquiesced methods to elevate quality through industrial clusters. Collaboration or sharing hubs put forward innovation and expand peer production to explode closed ideological loops. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: arial;">This type of sector endorsed equity and normalization could offer opportunities in offsite construction, whether modular or panelized. Currently, most manufacturers protect their production secrets even though most are building in a similar way. Timber based prefabrication for mobile homes, volumetric modular or open wall and floor panels use timber frame principles that are non-proprietary and used onsite to realize the same basic structures as their factory-built analogs; frame details and materials are common construction knowledge. Still, the industry remains very conservative about sharing. Mutual methodologies pushed by trade associations could be a way forward to increase capacity and develop process and design intelligence throughout the industry making it possible for many small companies to compete fairly against larger manufacturers. Even for larger manufacturers, open and peer production leads to knowledge accessibility, potential affordability for the consumer and possibilities for greater growth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFqBrmSKHB298g4sgvojBjK6NpO1IYcFmkHwKSyvYNuiJXlm_Q67aADYGGehuIaUrpkh_qwtpQPSouaRG90fqaCJ453pFFLwxJmnA_IkdPPaDugUeAxo91oMPAluQcAC07d2dgSDlrXJOhZnCbIg0Fj0g7tESdKwjCOgggnfa9j5OoDIqtnM3tiB9HpXY5/s800/400-openfactory.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="800" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFqBrmSKHB298g4sgvojBjK6NpO1IYcFmkHwKSyvYNuiJXlm_Q67aADYGGehuIaUrpkh_qwtpQPSouaRG90fqaCJ453pFFLwxJmnA_IkdPPaDugUeAxo91oMPAluQcAC07d2dgSDlrXJOhZnCbIg0Fj0g7tESdKwjCOgggnfa9j5OoDIqtnM3tiB9HpXY5/w400-h268/400-openfactory.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Automated wood panel production</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></p></div><p> </p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-29936799445145673542023-11-21T08:27:00.000-08:002023-11-21T10:40:53.832-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 399 - customize - 10 - Robots for production or design<p><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA">Current and future digital modelling and fabrication methods advance opportunities for architects and designers to develop complex designs, organizations, and structures. While offering these shape-finding possibilities, design objectives are often conceptually distant from manufacturing targets. If singularity is a definitive objective of architectural design, repeating fundamental characteristics and criteria underwrites efficient production. Even with robotics slowly percolating the construction industry, the contrasting systemic postures of design and manufacturing still underscore certain fundamental snags between architecture and construction. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA">With robots programmed to cut, lift, nail, screw, or to execute any other task, architects are envisioning and exploring forms and geometries that are only possible through this computerized precision. For both design and simulating fabrication, miniature cobots can be brought into any office to validate this bespoke file to making approach. This one-off methodology is in sharp contrasts to how robots are used to optimize off-site construction to efficiently reduce both costs and schedules. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA">Autovol Volumetric Modular’s </span><a href="https://autovol.com/" style="color: #954f72;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA">https://autovol.com</span></a><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA"> use of automation in their factory symbolizes its potential to solve current labour shortages and construction’s lagging productivity. Once robots are programmed to perform a repetitive job, they can be part of a linear or cellular manufacturing process with people only keeping an eye on the machines and making sure materials, nails or screws are in position implementing their ordered tasks. Panelized elements like walls and floors can be fabricated on tables and then assembled into volumes or prisms that are easily stacked on site with robotic prompted precision. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><a name="OLE_LINK1"></a><a name="OLE_LINK2"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA">A streamlined mass-production process is based on strict, consistent, and precise automation and dependent on clear standards for construction with the repetition of common design dimensions, geometry and criteria from project to project. Modular automation certainly offers opportunities for major gains in time versus conventional construction. Improvements are made through process replication and optimized by a continuous production loop. These patterns of production are poles apart from the one-off prototypes architects sometimes conceive. Even as robots integrate the construction industry, the conceptual distance between both fields can be bridged or widened according to the same age-old debate between customization and normalization. <o:p></o:p></span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><a name="OLE_LINK2"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA"><br /></span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><a name="OLE_LINK2"></a></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEYSrwIXeA6h39EVdtASSVaWw7CU_HTmELpru8Lgay4JNJ4FqnA97vJt6pMT8hJAgqbURpWGPzeFV6_10GDXFBvD89HVxp98Gw1OxaqQcPuVnaN8RWIEB2BfomnYF5B9ha_dtsRCtaE1hBdZAf_rtoz0R9jo44jhWHL7ZwTNqa9LCB7R9DW54JyEHReQtp/s299/399%20Roboticsimage.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="299" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEYSrwIXeA6h39EVdtASSVaWw7CU_HTmELpru8Lgay4JNJ4FqnA97vJt6pMT8hJAgqbURpWGPzeFV6_10GDXFBvD89HVxp98Gw1OxaqQcPuVnaN8RWIEB2BfomnYF5B9ha_dtsRCtaE1hBdZAf_rtoz0R9jo44jhWHL7ZwTNqa9LCB7R9DW54JyEHReQtp/w320-h180/399%20Roboticsimage.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Photo from the Autovol website</span></td></tr></tbody></table><a name="OLE_LINK2"><br /><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-CA"><br /></span></a><p></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-87729684559736784622023-11-13T08:22:00.000-08:002023-11-13T08:22:09.647-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 398 - customize - 09 - Stackable micro apartments<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">The pressure of providing affordable housing in cities is driving an era of renewed interest in the «minimum dwelling». First articulated in 1932 by Karel Teige, the approach argued for inhabitable private cells and shared services to reduce redundant spaces. The inhabitable cell inspired the plugged-in unit on a common core prototypes of postwar Japan’s Metabolist movement. The minimum dwelling, a type of machine for living, was one of modern architecture’s obsessions: fabricating a dwelling from the conceptualizations of the industrial age, mechanization, mass production and Frederick W. Taylor's task separation; The efficient dwelling was a theme for architects to explore and illustrate potential well-run living environments complete with technological devices and built-in furnishings masterfully managing every square cm. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Today's equivalent capsules or tiny houses are suggested not only to be tuned to contemporary living conditions but also to increase density and more critically to decrease building costs. Made offsite and transported to urban building sites, manufactured micro-lodgings can reduce construction time and site disturbance. Further, commonized flats can be stacked, maximize production, and harmonize design with procurement criteria to foster cost effective multi-unit buildings. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">MyMicroNY at Carmel Place, in Manhattan, opened in 2016. A series of stacked micro-apartments designed by nArchitects, the proposal outlines the possibilities provided by this budding micro-unit typology for urban housing. The nine-story building is organized by 55 units varying in size from 260-360 square feet (24-28 square meters). Each is a dimensionally coordinated container-like module serially produced in a factory setting. The apartments are a straightforward enfilade of bath, kitchen and living space. Built-in murphy beds convert day spaces into night spaces or provide flexibility for receiving guests. Made from a cold rolled steel framed chassis, the stackable boxes are completely fitted-out for delivery and to be set in place. The steel chassis outlines a precise construction system with a 3mm tolerance making a case for modular construction's stable processes that save time as well as increase construction quality. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Produced by New York City company Capsys corp at the company's Brooklyn naval yard plant, the building was developed from a competition proposal as a pattern for increasing supply of affordable living spaces in cities at the front line of housing crises.</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM9MB8YX3RhYxHNljy9gH1fQFWbVCqM5zKZff8Y_yUbdB3pfdnhSHQBNYYi_jU6hCpAQEb4-XoUi7QKMT7BfXmOOOzXLhVMLRn-uUIWcWadGd1fAseUfjRsG-ViX0ysa_5u6D18YBSnlGdMDaoRYr7ivG61Nl2D7xJ0NMwkYEddHvumF-daNePc3oZV1v4/s750/398_nA_MMNY_Render-Construction.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="750" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM9MB8YX3RhYxHNljy9gH1fQFWbVCqM5zKZff8Y_yUbdB3pfdnhSHQBNYYi_jU6hCpAQEb4-XoUi7QKMT7BfXmOOOzXLhVMLRn-uUIWcWadGd1fAseUfjRsG-ViX0ysa_5u6D18YBSnlGdMDaoRYr7ivG61Nl2D7xJ0NMwkYEddHvumF-daNePc3oZV1v4/w400-h259/398_nA_MMNY_Render-Construction.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Setting a stackable unit in place from architects' <br />website https://narchitects.com/work/carmel-place/<br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-72864167657829407272023-11-07T11:18:00.000-08:002023-11-07T11:18:55.610-08:00Prefabrication experiments - 397 - customize - 08 - Cosmic Buildings <p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The future of construction is being guided and informed by the assimilation of digital technologies in the design and building processes. As climate change imposes reductions in resource consumption as well as adapting new energies, calculating carbon emissions, and reforming present take-make-dispose approaches, policy makers and project stakeholders are investigating parallel industries to generate innovative production ideas for breeding economies, efficiencies, and greater productivity. Streamlining supply chains and harmonizing design with offsite production are key ideas being touted as a path forward. Deploying modular, normalized, reproducible, intelligent and factory optimized assemblies that can be leveraged toward assorted designs is the basis of an industrial product platform ideology percolating from automobile and kit furniture sectors to architecture. While still marginal in construction, innovative start-ups are illustrating the potential for product platform theory to help increase output while making the whole industry more prolific. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Sasha Jokic, a construction innovator well-versed in robotics and their application in construction, is the founder of Cosmic, a company that is proposing a building system to plan and create affordable, efficient, and low-carbon housing prototypes. Jokic’s scheme elucidates an open «product platform» imagined for ease of assembly and standardized component production. The basic volume is outlined by a steel and timber chassis, a modular volume that could be aggregated to produce innumerable patterns. The company is marketing a no-frills Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) that could be added to any backyard on simple tripod, strip or granular foundations. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Cellular web, cold-formed, sheet metal joists are connected to columns to fashion a post and girder framework braced by plywood panels. The open joist floor plates are panelized as a type of cartridge that can be flatpacked to facilitate its bundling and delivery. Mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems can also be modularized into the floor cores. All elements are ordered and repeated over multiple units to distribute design and production costs, a basic principle of industrialized production. The first ADU also includes solar panels for energy production conserved in lithium-ion batteries that provide enough energy to run all systems including heating, cooling and ventilation making the unit completely self-sufficient. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTk3l7BXkN9f8ir6DE_FhM_rAkFPJlOOXXn5ka8QAurae6ogS-B20BeDOaTVN-oF4wYnxUUh-J5m8Afk2_5Cll0QGoL2kOu_MIU6coLTBlMKpLK_0gb7k-e6xD4-OLBVBtXM0cw13izOzZfdBDUlhwduS1pS-4NMbc8ej12UB4CCTQq1xzdxZuzO5XJOC3/s1280/397-cosmic.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTk3l7BXkN9f8ir6DE_FhM_rAkFPJlOOXXn5ka8QAurae6ogS-B20BeDOaTVN-oF4wYnxUUh-J5m8Afk2_5Cll0QGoL2kOu_MIU6coLTBlMKpLK_0gb7k-e6xD4-OLBVBtXM0cw13izOzZfdBDUlhwduS1pS-4NMbc8ej12UB4CCTQq1xzdxZuzO5XJOC3/w400-h225/397-cosmic.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Assembling the floor plate cartridge onto the posts - from Cosmic Buildings <a href="https://www.cosmicbuildings.com/">https://www.cosmicbuildings.com/</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-45820680758575213132023-10-31T07:20:00.004-07:002023-10-31T07:20:30.259-07:00Prefabrication experiments - 396 - customize - 07 - MAAP House panelized construction<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Prefabrication and customized design have rarely converged. Effective production requires cultivating replicable patterns and designs to guarantee streamlined manufacturing. Personalization challenges are further enhanced when building systems are integrated or fitted out in a factory setting. Modular volumetric is an excellent case and point as big boxes are outfitted up to 70%. While advantageous for planning and climate-controlled task completion, it can certainly limit design freedom. Architects and industrialists have tried to address this difficulty through open systems. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Design limitations, project pipeline forecasting, upfront factory investments, along with greater transport and site staging constraints have produced contrasting results and have even sometimes led to superior overall costs. In opposition to building with big chunks, panelized surface elements equipped to various degrees, flat-packed and sequenced for onsite construction can provide more design freedom. Panels do require more intensive site work, however, this can be compensated by easy-to-assemble features. Fabricating modular, versatile, and complete panels can vary according to designs and are dimensionally less restrictive. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The MAAP House Company from Australia promotes this type of panelized construction as a way of simplifying transport and project completion. Panels can be used for floors, walls, and roofs in a type of planar shell kit strategy. MAAP panels remain fully demountable after assembly which makes the building envelope 100% relocatable and reusable. The stressed-skin, lightweight partitions are composed of a cold formed steel skeletal core lined with magnesium oxide board making the system fireproof and mold resistant. Each panel is created in line with the company’s preset dimensional standards, and they can be put together by one or two people in any geographical context. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Like many other panel-based systems, the MAAP house components are delivered to fit seamlessly and form a weatherproof building skin. Limitations include site intensive furnishing of all other building systems. To commercialize complete kits, MAAP has developed wet rooms, kitchens and bathrooms, as completed volumes, pods or brought to site as cartridge-like mechanical elements. This hybrid approach is promoted by the company as resolving transport issues. The flat pack and pods approach also makes their system adaptable to any architectural design.<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHV5YG3jK6HAF1BwjDCHg-3v0SF0UlN-scx3LO-_I0fwbm96OmfqHcX_azfizAqdlb4za-39TBkRVSgt8Mny2K55EdUXXtYEZG_7Ds0aq3OkhWCm0ai9Df3S9aXCV5hoRX_C5h80cZFCTC1tqGQ-mdAB7WnZdNzjpk_4h7Csr0QOIYgqTCZcdQ3gmU-si/s563/396-maap-panels-loaded.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="563" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHV5YG3jK6HAF1BwjDCHg-3v0SF0UlN-scx3LO-_I0fwbm96OmfqHcX_azfizAqdlb4za-39TBkRVSgt8Mny2K55EdUXXtYEZG_7Ds0aq3OkhWCm0ai9Df3S9aXCV5hoRX_C5h80cZFCTC1tqGQ-mdAB7WnZdNzjpk_4h7Csr0QOIYgqTCZcdQ3gmU-si/s320/396-maap-panels-loaded.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Flat-packed panels from <span style="text-align: left;">https://www.maaphouse.com/bettermodulartransport.html </span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-91119307908992337182023-10-24T13:22:00.005-07:002023-10-24T13:24:04.766-07:00Prefabrication experiments - 395 - customize - 06 - Volumetric Adaptability<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US">Flexibility, adaptability, and malleability are all required in some form in architecture and construction. The built form undergoes alterations, from minor to major, over its service life. A capacity to adapt to these changes mitigates waste resulting from renovations. Prefabrication, specifically with modular volumetric subassemblies, chunks or pods, is not really recognized for its capacity to evolve over time as proprietary, production and assembly constraints have created fixed, regulated, and sometimes overly static load-bearing compositions. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US">Japanese groundbreaking manufacturing methods in the 1950s and 1960s introduced novel ways of looking at changeability by projecting and producing integrated capsule dwelling units that could simply be bolted to a structural hub and replaced, moved or rearranged as needed. This architectural conceptualization ended with the recent demolition of Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower. Still, the idea of a building that could be built with large factory-built boxes and with reversible connections to allow for its systemic deconstruction still inspires.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US">Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation’s Innocell Tower is a recent adaptation of a type of megastructure by engineers Hip Hing and architects <span style="color: #58595b;"> </span>Leigh & Orange Ltd. The MiC process «Modular integrated Construction», precast and prefinished modular units, is put forward as quicker, more efficient, and better quality. The 17-story building is composed of steel skeletal boxes bolted together and supported by a superstructure to create a multi-use dynamic and open system. The boxes are juxtaposed, fastened, and braced laterally by an onsite poured concrete core and horizontal floor slabs. The hybrid construction system distances itself from Metabolist megastructure aesthetics but remains conceptually similar to ideas advanced more than a half century ago. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US">Is developing a systemic flexibility in modular architecture a recurring pipe dream or has its day finally come? Programming an edifice for change is challenging as technologies, material conditions, standards, building codes, lifestyles and stylistic choices evolve unpredictably. Imagining simply exchanging old modules for new ones has proven impracticable. A building's obsolescence has less to do with its demountability than its potential to be reimagined and refitted without taking it apart. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxFuGhoJDCEqD9duRwUDiqQVRG1lpZ_09hGbe7XPFPfQV1mN2ybdVKzOVdR5No3ccRPEYhlGexsix7drffBQyLKT3Pb9Y41isJFEtMSnLeWqmsGkrnKydB3dMQiF_IgF8YumpftTjH53sWpJ4OomCGKoW7dZ5zX56nUJ1hV-HoJCZa3NOTiYZOrQmaN2hZ/s700/395-05Innocell.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="700" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxFuGhoJDCEqD9duRwUDiqQVRG1lpZ_09hGbe7XPFPfQV1mN2ybdVKzOVdR5No3ccRPEYhlGexsix7drffBQyLKT3Pb9Y41isJFEtMSnLeWqmsGkrnKydB3dMQiF_IgF8YumpftTjH53sWpJ4OomCGKoW7dZ5zX56nUJ1hV-HoJCZa3NOTiYZOrQmaN2hZ/w400-h300/395-05Innocell.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Modular boxes integrated into a collective framework</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><br /></span><p></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-842787339840451782023-10-13T05:12:00.001-07:002023-10-24T13:23:19.449-07:00Prefabrication experiments - 394 - customize - 05 - Framing possibilities<p> </p><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Light timber balloon frame and subsequently platform framing revolutionized building culture in North America and then all over the industrialized world. Milled abundant softwood, «2 by» stock, enabled anyone to nail together and erect these simplified posts, beams and joists into load-bearing walls, floors, and roofs. Lightweight timber construction became synonymous with low-density housing and continues to be the go-to system for small buildings. Although rudimentary, it proved affordable and arguably the most adaptable form of construction.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Timer framing has few constraints; the structural redundancy of closely positioned nailed studs and joists makes any structure possible. It’s no surprise that this flexibility has provided little need for innovation since its early mass adoption, its accurate normalisation and democratisation through the baby boom of the 1950s and 60s. Prefabrication of wall and floor panels has added some value in terms of saving time and reducing onsite waste, but novelty in framing is limited. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As the mechanized sawmill was the basis for the invention and knowledge spread of stick framing, computerized cutters are influencing and inspiring a new generation to look at framing with state-of-the-art manufacturing methodologies. <i>Wiki-house</i>, <i>U-build</i>, and <i>Xframe</i> are three open systems articulated to new digital fabrication possibilities. <i>Xframe</i> posits a complete change of construction strategy. The x-braced frame trellis proposes bolted joinery along with dry wood on wood assemblies to keep elements together while ensuring ease of disassembly at the end of the frames’ service life. A plurality of organisations is possible from this cross braced plywood panelized structure including any finishing materials from interior partitions to complete insulated exterior walls. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The structural web is defined by vertical, horizontal, and diagonal plywood elements attached with wooden gusset plates. The pattern, a type of bailey bridge truss, defines a robust and modular repeatable thickness arranged from a 1200mm x 2700mm grid. The plywood strips are placed to structure a surface akin to a vertical waffle or ribbed slab. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The mass cultural acceptance of the light wood frame has impeded the market penetration of any other strategies. Proposals like the <i>X-frame, </i>however pertinent, require such profound reforming of cultural habits and supply chain harmonies that their long-term commercial applicability is difficult to realize and reason. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjCYFhmwosl0W9cd7Q81SsR_MLsSZp4P233BPmff0liqrzJ63Nny3FoJCp8INrRIwBuUk1ZZnITtmxHZgs4mW8bxchDnTaR_cJLiqHNyr5DptM3JYmus8MZK6zWPtzMYSFtsDMEgC5DtAn0LbyowBfWr3ctxAw5RRIPntvr0mUwFnJLcOTIw6GHr9AYBwQ/s1242/394-04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="1242" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjCYFhmwosl0W9cd7Q81SsR_MLsSZp4P233BPmff0liqrzJ63Nny3FoJCp8INrRIwBuUk1ZZnITtmxHZgs4mW8bxchDnTaR_cJLiqHNyr5DptM3JYmus8MZK6zWPtzMYSFtsDMEgC5DtAn0LbyowBfWr3ctxAw5RRIPntvr0mUwFnJLcOTIw6GHr9AYBwQ/w400-h268/394-04.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Xframe structure see https://xframe.com.au<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p></div>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-14165845377493316862023-10-03T11:11:00.001-07:002023-10-05T05:40:05.800-07:00Prefabrication experiments - 393 - customize - 04 - Expandability and Adaptability<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US">In the vast spectrum of ideas connecting architecture to its potential flexibility or its capacity to change over time, expandability has been a topic of much exploration. From the experimental suitcase house explored by Gary Chang in 2009 to Villa Verde (Chile, 2010) and other incremental open-source housing projects by Elemental architects, the ability for a structure to grow and be redefined according to changing requirements posits a design process coupled with lifecycle evolutions. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US">One of the dominant spatial concepts of adaptability, a fixed core (service spaces) and flexible periphery (served spaces), outlines the basic elements of the core house archetype; the rational arrangement of all required technical elements in a dimensionally regulated volume leaving the adjacent spaces free from any mechanical constraints. The core is often discussed as a modular capsule or pod, a type of battery pack, that powers dwelling functions. Non-technical spaces can branch out from this hub growing in an organic and informal manner. The core house symbolizes a user-focused approach to dwelling provision and community development. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US">The Expandable House proposed in 2018 by architecture firm Urban Rural Systems articulates its changeability to an infrastructure service hub, including walls, roof, and foundations to build up a one-story brutalist box with a three-story structural capacity. The spaces adjacent to the core-wall can be used for living or working. More than just a dwelling, the urban patchwork quilt of cores speculates a dynamic horizontal and vertical framework reflecting inhabitants’ and neighborhood evolutions. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><a name="OLE_LINK1"></a><a name="OLE_LINK2"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US">The core is structured by a concrete post and beam skeleton with cinder block infill. Other spaces and systems are added as they become economically feasible. The basic enfilade of spaces includes a kitchen, toilet, bath, and rainwater collecting elements in a tightly organized wall. Identified as dynamic urbanism, the architects envisioned their core house as the seed of affordable growth. A steel roof covering is designed to be hoisted like a telescopic umbrella to varying heights to accommodate a plurality of dwelling compositions and elevations. <o:p></o:p></span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US">An alignment of sustainable and affordable dwelling criteria, core house principles can be achieved with local building materials and traditions bridging complex infrastructure distribution with open user-defined planning.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPwJxbFZuxYbqKGU8ZJ_tvpxZAuG5Y7xmQlRY_FIyQGJCIgDUCZCT698y6F6KfURLzUfArPjscZTdfkWhZaztTQP4_UGKgM0VxEEOdfkMZaHrkf1Vp8Ml2okPXiv04TjGHCzlBOr90J1_adibDEZsoe77mFNH6itqW3buDirqCMOfD0yOgwBSPJjhd1a04/s1582/393-03expandable.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1582" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPwJxbFZuxYbqKGU8ZJ_tvpxZAuG5Y7xmQlRY_FIyQGJCIgDUCZCT698y6F6KfURLzUfArPjscZTdfkWhZaztTQP4_UGKgM0VxEEOdfkMZaHrkf1Vp8Ml2okPXiv04TjGHCzlBOr90J1_adibDEZsoe77mFNH6itqW3buDirqCMOfD0yOgwBSPJjhd1a04/w400-h228/393-03expandable.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Expandable Core House by Urban Rural Systems (2018)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><br /></span><p></p>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-565264181531036882.post-16524576456302479542023-09-26T05:26:00.000-07:002023-09-26T05:26:47.164-07:00Prefabrication experiments - 392 - customize - 03 - Plug-in dwellings<p> </p><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">When it comes to prefabrication and industrialized building systems, it seems everything old becomes new again. Ideas from the past get fresh imagery and are wrapped up in an era’s vocabulary to argue for innovation in architecture and construction. Adaptability is one of these reemerging concepts that entices architects to envision ways of making edifices flexible enough to respond to both minor organizational changes and major modifications required for retrofitting according to evolving requirements. The plug-in rhetoric of Metabolist architects in post war Japan posited capsule living as the future of adaptability. Inhabitable manufactured pods would simply be attached or plugged into a collective infrastructure. These functional commodities could either be moved, replaced, or altered over time. Architecture was viewed as peripatetic.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Kisho Kurokwa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower epitomized this concept for generations of architects. Ultimately, it proved marginal and ephemeral with the building coming down in April of 2022. Still, the plug-in concept captivates architectural education and design strategies. Peoples Architecture Office of China has renewed these strategies on recent projects including their plug-in school and plug-in tower. The Plug-in Tower closely mimics the systemic separation of support services from their appended mass-produced dwelling pods. The mega spaceframe structure, an oversized version of the famous Mero<sup>TM</sup> space frame node, is intended as an adaptable framework espousing any site; the office’s proprietary plug-in panelized sub-assemblies compose prismatic inhabitable spaces within the steel web. The factory-made panel is described as including all mechanical necessities along with interior and exterior finished surfaces. Other functional systems and circulation elements are added-on to create a total comprehensive building. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The prototype is represented as a single-family dwelling without permanent foundations as the steel trellis structure can be anchored to any site; the plug-in dwellers could disassemble the house and take it with them wherever they decide to live. Further, the space frame structure can grow vertically and horizontally adapting to suit changing requirements. A contemporary version of ideas explored during the latter half of the twentieth century, the romanticized mobility and architectural interchangeability reveal more about the theoretical artefacts produced by the profession than it does about tangible applicable adaptability for housing. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnpW7cOzCP0AbsgSzj0XzP63miunPiVanAB9HF962Yav3MQtNseAz0eUB5Nn3lp49CsTULRtqXIcOREzBqa2CamPfV263kCOlWaNbYYNuIAjghwLWafmqqM8-30wEqQTAUiDx5utoJ7Y-Fnut6K8USxCJVY0Lab0NyKkgYX-MVL2VXs2OG9-DZ1QAPb_cK/s296/392-02plug-in.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="170" data-original-width="296" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnpW7cOzCP0AbsgSzj0XzP63miunPiVanAB9HF962Yav3MQtNseAz0eUB5Nn3lp49CsTULRtqXIcOREzBqa2CamPfV263kCOlWaNbYYNuIAjghwLWafmqqM8-30wEqQTAUiDx5utoJ7Y-Fnut6K8USxCJVY0Lab0NyKkgYX-MVL2VXs2OG9-DZ1QAPb_cK/w400-h230/392-02plug-in.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plug-in prototype from Peoples Architecture Office</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p></div>pre[FABRICA]tionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13424681507646354731noreply@blogger.com0