António Alberto Lopes Fernandes Duarte Correia

VOLUME II (ANNEX)
FABRICATING ARCHITECTURE From Modern to Global Space
António Alberto Lopes Fernandes Duarte Correia

FABRICATING ARCHITECTURE
From Modern to Global Space
VOLUME II (ANNEX)

Tese de Doutoramento em Arquitectura, orientada pelos

Professor Doutor Luís Simões da Silva e Professor Doutor Vítor Murtinho e apresentada ao
Departamento de Arquitectura da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra

Dezembro de 2017
Bolsa SFRH/BD/65732/2009:
 António Lopes Correia

FABRICATING
ARCHITECTURE
From Modern
to Global Space VOLUME II (ANNEX)

PhD thesis in Architecture, advised by

Prof. Dr. Luís Simões da Silva and Prof. Dr. Vítor Murtinho
and presented to the Department of Architecture of the
Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra

December 2017
Table of Contents

I A MECHANISTIC INHERITANCE—COMPLEMENTARY TEXTS —9

1 Architecture: An etymological draft —11
2 The fragment experience of space-time —17
3 Illustrating ideological incongruities —21
4 Aldo Van Eyck’s Orphanage synthesis —25
4.1 The Otterlo Circles —25
4.2 The Orphanage —26
4.3 Dialectics of control and freedom —27
5 Down Magritte’s rabbit hole —29
6 Albert Frey’s nature and industry synthesis —33
6.1 A living architecture —33
6.2 House Frey I —34
7 The Additive Architecture of Jørn Utzon and the Espansiva System —37
7.1 Vernacular and natural influences —37
7.2 An Additive Architecture —37
7.3 The Espansiva System —39
8 John Turner’s network and hierarchy —41
9 John Habraken’s Supports —43
10 Enacting freedom in Herman Hertzberger’s Central Beheer —45
11 Alterity beyond control through Jean Nouvel’s Nemausus I —47

II (PRE)FABRICATING ARCHITECTURE COMPLEMENTARY TEXTS —51

1 Outline and challenges of the housing and the construction sector in Europe —53
1.1 Introduction —53
1.2 Some numbers —54
1.3 The construction sector —55
1.4 Prefab innovation and business as usual in the Portuguese case —56
1.5 Thinking of a future possible —58
2 Prefabrication of houses: A historical and socio-cultural survey —61
2.1 Context and challenges of house prefabrication in Europe —61
2.1.1 A brief acknowledgement of the French case —62
2.1.2 A brief acknowledgment of the Soviet Union case —63
2.2 Prefabrication of houses in the Nordic Countries —64
2.2.1 Constructive roots —64
2.2.2 Installation of a new paradigm through the XXth century wars —65
2.2.3 Architectural experimentation after WWII —67
2.2.4 Market and technological developments in the past decades —69
2.2.5 Playfulness and social acceptability —71
2.3 Prefabrication of houses in The Netherlands —73
2.3.1 Country context —73
2.3.2 A systems’ design culture —74
2.3.3 Some recent cases —75
2.4 Prefabrication of houses in Germany —77
2.4.1 Outline —77
2.4.2 The housing problem in Berlin in the early XXth century —78
2.4.3 Martin Wagner and the state programs —78
2.4.4 GEHAG wave examples —79
2.4.5 Ernst May and system construction —80
2.4.6 Behrens and the architecture-product —81
2.4.7 Walter Gropius and a Neues Bauen through Bauhaus —81
2.4.8 Prefab explored through steel construction —82
2.4.9 The Weissenhof Siedlung inner circle —83
2.4.10 The Frankfurt Kitchen —85
2.4.11 The Nazi hibernation and a post-WWII rebirth —85
2.4.12 GDR’s Plattenbau age —86
2.4.13 West Germany systems —86
2.4.14 Current prefab business —88
2.4.15 The case of WeberHaus ‘Option’ (Bauart AG architects) and WeberHaus Systems —90
2.5 Prefabrication of houses in the UK —92
2.5.1 Outline and early examples —92
2.5.2 A global revolution —93
2.5.3 Crystal Palace and a synthesis of an iron tradition —95
2.5.4 Post-WWI prefab programs —96
2.5.5 The rise and fall of the post-WWII temporaries —98
2.5.6 Successful post-WWII commercial systems —101
2.5.7 Social prejudice and the rise and fall of systems —103
2.5.8 Remarkable architectural cases —105
2.5.9 Current reality —106
2.6 Prefabrication of houses in the USA —108
2.6.1 Early historical landmarks —108
2.6.2 Inventiveness and playfulness —109
2.6.3 Fordism and Taylorism 109
2.6.4 Catalogue homes and a culture of consumption —110
2.6.5 A media driven, inventive and competitive spirit —112
2.6.6 New aesthetics and the masses —114
 2.6.7 Imagining Futures (The 1933 Chicago World Fair) —115
2.6.8 Around WWII —116
2.6.9 Prefab business today —117
2.6.10 Notable architectural incursions on prefab —117
2.6.10.1 Buckminster Fuller —118
2.6.10.2 Richard Neutra —119
2.6.10.3 Albert Frey —119
2.6.10.4 Frank Lloyd Wright —120
2.6.10.5 Marcel Breuer —120
2.6.11 Case-Study House Program media legacy —121
2.6.12 Manufactured homes from America —122
2.6.13 Patent your building —125
2.7 Prefabrication of houses in Japan —127
2.7.1 Traditional systems —127
2.7.2 A contemporary prefab panorama —129
2.7.3 The case of Toyota Homes —131
2.7.4 The case of Onjuku Beach House by Bakoko architects—134
3 Logistic notes—Containers & pallets —137
4 Mass-customization notes —139
4.1 Overview of mass-customization concepts from a business perspective —139
4.2 Some methodological approaches to MC from an architectural perspective —141

IV EPISTEMOLOGICAL NOTES [A GLOBAL EPILOGUE]—COMPLEMENTARY TEXTS —143

1 The phenomenon of globalization —145
2 Three cases of global collaborative work —149
3 The Bo-Klok, or architecture as branded product —151
4 Housing, a global issue —153

BIBLIOGRAPHY —157
TABLE OF ACRONYMS —169
TABLE OF FIGURES —171
TABLE OF TABLES —173
REFERENCES —175
I A Mechanistic
Inheritance
COMPLEMENTARY TEXTS

9
10
1 ARCHITECTURE: AN ETYMOLOGICAL DRAFT
Everything starts with a name. That could well be an ontological motto for this dissertation, for in
structuralist terms there is an invisible linguistic bridge between us and the world—or, as Heidegger
formulated, the Dasein (i.e. the being there or existence)1. Accordingly, intertwined within a quintessential
social nature of the human endeavoring, there is a linguistic sphere locating architecture among the
things of the world, engaging it among the production processes underlying the come-to-being of
human artifacts. As the world moves on, our frames of reference move with it, shifting as we shift
throughout, as too languages evolve. Thus, any attempt to observe the unfolding matters of what we
can assume as being architecture, will always be incomplete. But it is also from that point of departure
that we can arguably aspire to the production of some meaningful sense, i.e., knowing beforehand
that no ends are achievable, but endless paths of possibilities, with an end and a beginning in architec-
ture.
In western culture, etymologically, architecture seems to be derived from the Latin, architectura and
ultimately from the Greek, arkitekton (αρχιτεκτων), roughly meaning master builder or director of
works, from the combination of arkhi- (αρχι), a chief or leader, and tekton (τεκτων), a builder or carpenter.
In turn, tekton comes from the Sanskrit taksan, denoting to the use of the axe and the craft of car-
pentry. Vestiges can also be found in Vedic, referring again to carpentry. In ancient Greece, it would
appear in Homer, alluding to the art of construction in general. A poetic sense is first noted in Sappho
where the tekton impersonates the poet. The meaning would further evolve, as the term went from
referring to something physical and specific—carpentry—to a more generic notion of making—po-
etic sense. In addition, architecture can be related with the notion of arkhé, that is, the knowledge or
engagement towards the origin, which is the root of words such as archetype, archeology, or archive. Such
can be observed in the sense of what the ancient western philosophers called the Demiurg, the unat-
tainable original architect, an ontological God-like figure, the seemingly one and only to have access
to the genuine essence2.
In a common sense, architecture stands for creating, planning, coordinating, and for building, to
refer the characteristics of what is built, and so forth. Accordingly, the term is frequently applied to
describe works related with the built environment. In addition, it has been used via other connota-
tions, such as in explicitly artificial things (e.g. software, hardware), characteristically natural things (e.g.
biological structures, geological formations), or in implicitly abstract things (e.g. music, mathematics).
In each, broadly we can regard it as a mapping to the elements or components of a structure or
system, to understand them better and/or to creatively re-combine them towards new meanings.
Indeed, the term has also been associated to a wider notion that implies the métiers of creating or
devising a thing or a system, addressing some sort of problem, to be implicitly or explicitly applied—

11
e.g. through the own hands, through others’, through machines’, to build a logical frame, and so
forth.
In this perspective, in a modern sense, it can be understood from Immanuel Kant’s (b.1724–
d.1804) broader notion of architectonic and its correlated notion of systematicity3. Before Kant, other
thinkers, such as Aristotle4 (b.384BC–d.322BC) or Leibniz5 (b.1646–d.1716), had implied such no-
tion. In common, all these authors place it close to a sense of system construction, via Idea (mental)
and through devising combinatorial ars logica, and finally, as an ontological structure by itself. For the
XVIIIth century Kant, human reason is by nature architectonic because it regards all our knowledge
as belonging to a possible system, a notion that has since been reinforced6. Anyhow, it must be noted
that this is a double-edged notion. On the one hand, it is in agreement with the need for attaining
frames of reference which underlays any knowledge construction—architecture included. On the
other hand, if neglecting an emanating real, when it appears to us out of any aprioristically conceived
frame of reference, and/or if taking those frames as a sort of immutable entities, it may also lead to
what potentially is a methodologically (and ideologically) dangerous assumption of totality. That can
lead to an also likely treacherous (and unlikely accurate) idea of full accomplishment, or of a kind of
super-human universalism. In the least, that can be suggested through an arkhé etymological perspec-
tive, which brings it a sense of full-proof solidity, since based in a sort of historical soundness, even
if not confirmed or confirmable. However, that idea of universal truthiness has also been refuted,
namely by the epistemological repercussions raised out of the scientific notion of relativity7.
Overall, it is hard to picture architecture has being just about a discourse, or just about a set of
techniques, or just about a pure mental setting, or just about any single isolated thing. It is generally
a blend of multiple things, something with, say, an unspecified specificity. Moreover, it is about de-
livering-through-praxis artifacts in a space-time set, being that real or virtual (assuming the latter is
conceded) or any other. That implies there is a visible, perceptive or practical side to it, which can be
seen more as of an organic and dynamic nature, and that is hardwired to engage with the available
reality that is being addressed. That also necessarily suggests there is a subjective (thus ideological
and/or aesthetical) way of seeing8 implied, which is responsible for bounding form at some point (i.e.
making options in a limited time span), which unavoidably extends beyond purely rational, rhetorical
or technical considerations, or in the least brings about a minimum set of constraints. Thus, there is
too a dimension of circumstantiality and chance, which renders useless any attempt of instilling an
unyielding, tout-court rationality.
Since the vast majority of contemporary architects are formed in architecture schools, it seems
reasonable to consider that an architectural way of seeing (or its equivalent thinking) may be linked with
an academic formatting, regardless the differences that may exist between schools. Nevertheless,
throughout history, there are also those that gained an outstanding architectural reputation, to the

12
point of reshaping the profession, without going through (or completing) a formal architectural ed-
ucation and/or considering themselves architects.
Among these, figure XXth century acknowledged masters such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van
der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Buckminster Fuller, or Jean Prouvé. As free creative spirits, their curiosity
came from multiple sources, not limited to architectural references alone. Their forming years did
not exactly follow an academically straight path, and some have not even gone through academia. In
the least, it is believable that the openness to the things of the world, which they manifested in their
life path, contributed for their affirmation. Anyhow, it is unquestionable that, by devising new ways of
seeing—i.e. their own ways—they have extended the vocabulary of architectural language, from which
new and different meanings could thereon be produced. In this sense, they have raised the bar, be-
coming themselves referential, setting trends and thus creating a retinue of followers, and with it
contributing to a reconfiguration of the profession. They did it foremost by bringing their own sub-
jectivity to the stand, not exclusively their rational or rationalizing spirit. These are evidence that more
than a link to any establishment (academic, political, economic, and so forth), architectural production
can essentially be considered as an act of human intelligence over space-time.
The example of these non-conformed masters also illustrates a process by which the evolution of
the architectural field has proceeded not only from within, but also by fetching elements externally.
As in any other product of human intelligence, such kind of process can be observed from different
angles and arising from different contexts. In any case, to enable such a rich and vivid contamination
can point towards the existence of some sort of basic structure laying beforehand. It can be presumed
that there is a matrix to an architectural way of understanding the world resting in common principles,
or entities, such as space-time. However, such notions are also vague, subjectable to different inter-
pretations, and far from undisputable. Nevertheless, although those may not be directly intelligible,
whatever the human activity considered, the way these are understood necessarily shapes the way we
look to the world, and unavoidably informs and constrains the modes in which architecture is pro-
duced and understood, shaping an architectural way of seeing9, whatever that may be.
The seemingly ordered world of an architect’s vision creates a reality that only in his own mind
can aspire to be set perfectly clear—eventually, with greater or lesser degree, the (in)congruencies of
the real take care to mismatch it from its original source. In this sense, the architectural projection
(mental) implies a creative search of an unattainable and only ideal perfection, regardless the more or
less complex and/or contradictory that perfection may be—ontologically, perfection is unavoidably
dated and contextual. Additionally, in a design stage, as in a construction stage, or in any stage or
combination of stages so-considered, architecture is most frequently the result of multiple minds.
Finally, all this implies an architectonic to the very architecture, which results from an age-old human

13
process of construction, of building significance out of things, answering to human problems or
aspirations, and from which the architectural artifact intrinsically results from.
Indeed, architecture is not usually a one-man job, but implies a chain of actors—a communal
job—that enables the architectural artifact to come to life. In this sense, and like in any other human
activity, architecture is primarily a social process, but generally with an important distinction regarding
other creative forms. That is, the distance from an original thought to the final product is bigger than,
say, in writing or painting, where the creative process is more likely to be depending of a single sub-
ject. As this distance increases, with more subjects and hence more communication channels in-
volved, it also increases the probability of noise, distortion or of manipulation of what was originally
set forth—distorted or mistranslated language. It can be argued that that is a matter of control, and
how to manage that control, where architecture can be regarded as mode of attempting to exert some
sort of control over a certain space-time context—but even so the unexpected is to be expected10.
Indeed, the establishment of different levels of control, towards the spatial conformation or the user,
seems to be key to define the architectural production itself.
It is also clear that architecture involves a complex fabric of multiple fields—aside a broader social
or cultural, also the technical, economical, legal, and so forth—under the (subjective) scope of the
architect. Within such frames, directly or indirectly, the subject-architect (and regardless it is a single
person or a collective) will inevitably reveal his own background—e.g. in aesthetic preferences—in
the devising process conducting to the advent of the artifact. In a process of such nature, it is unlikely
that a scientific method is exclusively pursued, nor an exclusive artistic approach, and so forth. And
again, it is a process that inevitably involves a receiver, users that will be experiencing it. Furthermore,
it involves a life span of occurrences. In this sense, the total architectonic of the architectural artifact in
space-time can be regarded as its (final) constructed artifact, or how its conception-made-artifact (men-
tal-to-executive sphere) shows itself to the user—i.e. outside viewer, inhabitant, and so on—and
through it lives and breathes, (de)generating in time.
In the face of an indelible evolution of the human signification processes and, with it, of the
complexity and intricacy of the artifacts of our world, it seems that some of the enchantment sur-
rounding architecture that we have inherited from modernity may have forever been lost. In a way,
modern architecture seemed to convey a sense of control over space-time that was somewhat reas-
suring—echoes of a positivist, techno-optimistic age that currently is no longer conceivable in the
terms that it once may have been.
Ascribing to its poetic etymological inheritance, architecture resides in what yet remains untold,
undone, that is, in a creative sphere, in going beyond some sort of replication realm or the like. As in
the classical tale of Sisyphus, which everyday repeated the same task of pushing a boulder up a moun-
tain, only to see it roll down again, it seems that architecture too aims to an unreachable ideal—that

14
of perfecting the unfolding (and imperfect) artifact. Its job, although permanent, is never complete.
That can be regarded as a warning, to not underestimate certain realities or to settle, but also as an
assurance of its disciplinary relevance. As the world progresses, architecture must continually reinvent
itself, otherwise risking losing its relevance, or ultimately its sense at all, thus imprinting itself a posi-
tive sense of conflict, permanently bouldering up the mountain. On the other hand, such reinvention
is only conceivable within a humanistic frame, for without a purpose or belief, for faded that may be,
architecture is in the least doomed to a sort of void aesthetical stance, stylistic replication, lost or dead
language.

15
16
2 THE FRAGMENT EXPERIENCE OF SPACE-TIME
From a phenomenological perspective, space-time can be regarded as what is implied in the ele-
ments that involve (or are perceived as involving) man11. In the psychology of space, what funda-
mentally matters is limited to the current perception moment, non-homogeneous and non-iso-
tropic12. Indeed, more than a mere scenery to physical, social or cultural forms, space-time seems to
participate in those forms, as they are embodied and understood via that same embodiment. For
instance, human behavior, does not simply seem to happen in space-time, but to have its own
forms—encountering, avoiding, interacting, building, teaching, eating13. In a way, these are not merely
activities that happen in space-time, they are themselves space-time, and are deeply rooted in funda-
mental human needs14.
On a common use, often the idea of space will be transcribed to expressions such as use of space,
spatial perception, space production, concepts of space, and so forth. In each of these expressions, a meaning
is attributed to the idea of space, linking it directly to human behavior or intentionality. Spatial con-
cepts common to the social sciences, as sensory space15 or space appropriation16, also imply the human
agent, and do not recognize its existence as independent of it. However, in architecture, where, by
the rationalization of the intervened object, the concepts of space often get disconnected from the
direct human agent through notions such as spatial hierarchy17 or spatial scale, we verify that in the end
space is rarely described as being totally independent18. Architectural functionalism, and its historical
discussion19, stands out as a critical example of such detachment. Behavioral patternizations, such as
those developed by Alexander Klein20 (b.1879–d.1961), as spatial qualities classifications, such as
light, air, color, and so on, are among the key aspects to understand the functional developments that
are indelibly associated with the advent of the Modern Movement in architecture21, as is its subse-
quent critique22.
Rediscovered in the Renaissance, Vitruvius’ work also inputs new information to a centralization
on the individual, which in itself fundamentally configures a spatial concern with multiple shades. In
the first chapter of the third book, he begins to describe the proportions of the human figure as a
model for the architectural proportions. The harmony of the body is, in its turn, assured by the geo-
metric harmony of the perfect figures, such as the circle and square. The problem of the corporal
measure, or of the body as a model of measurement, varies from the demonstration of its accurate
dimensions to a demonstration of the commensurability of man and space, between a subjective
order of body and an objective, mathematical, order of natural or celestial harmony.
The famous interpretation of the Vitruvian description by Leonardo da Vinci values this concep-
tion, affirming the human figure using a visual device of geometrical order, placing it in a circle and
square. The theme of da Vinci’s sketch is not only the demonstration of the body proportions, but
also implies the quest of a higher level of harmony which gathers, simultaneously, the objectivity of

17
numbers, law and measure, and the subjectivity of the body, vision and being. It thus points to a path
on the resolution of the conflict between an individual dimension of consciousness, and a collective
dimension of reason and science. This can be described as the corporeal base of a ‘perspectival par-
adigm’, i.e. the paradigm of the body that looks to the world through mathematical eyes, the idea of
an objectivity principle inscribed in the subjectivity of the soul. However, this idea came from the
assumption of a universal man, redemptory of harmony and perfection among things23. This would
later collide with the implicit idea of the Cartesian rationalism, in which ultimately man, by rational-
izing the world, is self-excluding from it24.
The famous Descartes sentence cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am)25 can, on the one hand, be
understood as a sort of ‘starting point’ of the objective knowledge of reality, but is also the motto of
the new position of thought and of being according to which reality exists for us as a network of
thought constructions. In an Enlightened world, mathematics became the methodic ideal of philos-
ophy and of the all quest for knowledge, of even God26. Nature was the primordial source of such
quest, if observed as a matter determined only casually according to norms. The ideal of perfection,
represented by God, is confronted with the chaos of creation, from which the imperfect Man chases
reason on the basic, but ever unraveling laws of Nature created by the very same God27.
The immediate unit between Man, Nature and the Cosmos, as it had earlier been idealized in the
Renascence, was abolished. As perspective converged to an inscrutable viewpoint28, revealing an un-
explored figurative potential, the Cartesian dualism between mind and body, its postulation of the
body autonomy as machine or sensorial organ, indirectly inaugurates a new logic of body as logic of
the senses, in which the eye replaces reason29, and the sensorial organ, the ability of comprehension30.
The original idea of body as a formal measurement reference model was in due course replaced by
the idea of body as a perception system31. In our times, the technological eye penetrates matter and
space, allowing a simultaneous vision of things32. In a world were technology is developing more and
more in a multi-mediation fashion, it is also verifiable that the audition, or the touch, has joined the
vision in the technologically mediated experience. Simultaneously, the technical development some-
what discarded other senses, given the difficulty to transport them digitally. Space is human space, with
a body, a breath, eating, sleeping or thinking.
Architects in the baroque faced the task of agglutinating the space of drama action with the space
of the audience, achieving it with the proscenium, a brilliant and thereon widespread architectural in-
vention. Such enabled the stage to be illuminated without interfering with the audience, and through
it offering the audience the convincing illusion that they were alone in the dark, spying characters
through an invisible wall. High-definition sound and sight, which current technologies enable, dizzies
us in an intense fog of images, where the screen experience, by its enormous dissemination, is less
and less proscenic, losing its apparent depth33. Instead, if a parallel can be stated, their multi-mediation,

18
increasing capabilities and links with multiple other devices, somewhat resemble more and more the
archetypal ‘flexible theatre’34, and one that we now carry in our pockets or that is integrated in our
homes, cars or clothes. Daily objects are ever more mediators to a ubiquitous virtual world, and
although connecting us to an immense collective construction, they seem to have the intimacy of
underwear, as denoted by the objects of the so-called internet of things. Conversely, the abundance of
imagery and information is so great, that it may paradoxically make it disappear35.
Using pure Cartesian terminology, in 1923, Le Corbusier was telling us that the plan was the
generator, and that without it there is disorder, randomness, that the plan is the essence of sensation36.
In our days, there is a growing tendency for architecture to leave this extruded plan, opening up to
the algorithmic complexity provided by the digital era. On the one hand, that finally enables the
visualization and calculation of the shapes generated by the complex math of the non-Euclidian ge-
ometry, which had been long remaining extraordinarily difficult to proceed. On the other hand, it
somewhat ‘democratizes’ design, making its production seemingly more accessible to a larger share
of the population, as in the least noticeable by the customization enablement provided by multiple
brands in different businesses. Anyhow, no matter how sophisticated the technological development,
the best option may at cases be, rather than detaching the design to the point of a complete abstrac-
tion with no referential to tangible elements, to keep the design in closer contact with the designer’s
reach, perpetuating an analogical sense to it37. In a way, the analogical has been underestimated by
modernity, and the digital38 is so hardly separable from the concrete, as the conceptual thought is
from our sensibility. As neurology seems to confirm, the spiritual and the corporeal doing are referred
to one another and are interdependent39, definitively shredding the Cartesian dualism apart.
Historically, through successive technological breakthroughs—inventions as some may call it—such
as the optical instruments, the perspective, photography, television, internet, and so on, our civiliza-
tion has progressively transited from a sort of realist space, objective, coordinated, in apparent control
by the observer, to an immersion in seemingly virtual spaces, which are simultaneously personal and
shared to the point of no distinction40. As space was becoming objectivized, from the infinitely small to
the infinitely big (to the point of escaping common imagination and having to be expressed in math-
ematical formulas), our culture has also dematerialized it, making us constantly dive in ever more
diversified (and specialized) spaces41.
In a prevalent perspective of our technologically based material culture, to measure, register, ac-
count, predict, and so forth, come as requisites for the superlative idea of constantly achieving an
ever more efficient pace that will likely lead us to somewhere better. We may easily assume this pos-
itivist idea of progress without even remembering to question the cornerstones of such paradigm42—
Jacques Tati’s movies have remarkably satirized it. However, the rational positivism of the sciences,
has somewhat been giving place to relativism in people’s minds and habits. In a sense, we live the

19
paradox of what we can call the relativist positivism. The once unitary idea of space (as in Le Corbusier’s
sensation generated by a plan), which characterizes the Modern culture narrative, has been fragmented,
leading us to witness to the increased visibility of a reality where there is an endless a proliferation of
space-times in a space-time only apparently common.
Aside the fireworks, if we recall Henry David Thoreau’s retreat to the woods, some things seem
to have not changed that much. We are still rooted to basic stimulate as the beauty of a landscape or
of a place, the noises of the city, the smell and flavor of the food we taste, the comfort of a chair, the
cosines of a bed, or the warmth of a body43. We experience, remember, compare, feel. Diffusely (and
inaccurately), we rebuild remembrances of space-times from our body-image. Our comfort sensa-
tions, protection and shelter, rooted in our genes and experience, strengthened and articulated in the
interaction with the surrounding, and that will constrain our re-conformation of space-time by the
architectural action. The architectural experience is multi-sensorial, absorbs qualities of space-time
and matter44, dynamically mapping and recalibrating them towards us, involving several states of
sensorial experience that interact and merge with each other. Beyond the modernist functionalism,
or any kind of abstraction, there are human bodies, living, experiencing, …errant beings. Beyond an
inebriating barrage of images and rhetoric’s, there are people with their own space-time experiences,
and there can be architecture too. Space-time is the place and occasion of our needs and dreams, of
our senses and emotions45. The body contributes with content that is part and parcel of the workings
of the mind. The mind is embodied, in the full sense of the term, not just embrained46. It is not just
me, as fully embodied with and within space-time. It is me with my world, both finally undistinguish-
able within the spiral of one’s existence.

20
3 ILLUSTRATING IDEOLOGICAL INCONGRUITIES
The Weissenhofsiedlung (Weissenhof Estate) built for the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition of 1927, in
Stuttgart, became a landmark of the modern architectural spirit. Twenty-one buildings comprising
sixty dwellings, displaying a strong consistency in design, with simplified facades, window bands, flat
roofs, free plan, and a high level of prefabrication which made their construction possible in a short
period of five months. These were designed by seventeen European architects, mostly German-
speaking, including Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, J. J. Oud, Walter Gropius, Bruno and Max
Taut, Peter Behrens or Hans Scharoun47, a true architectural stardom fair. However, the pure and
crude intentionality expressed in Gropius’ words, of form as a result of deep, inner relations, would
be seriously questioned in America with MoMA’s International Style exhibition and book in 1932, under
the coordination of Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock. As the formal similarities between
the buildings of the Weissenhofsiedlung seem to indicate, there seemed to be more to it than inner
relations: Gropius’ words had avoided it, but after all, modern architecture was a style, was modern-
ist. In the end, the discarded ‘expressionisms’ were alive, it was certainly a different thing, but it was
alive.
The Great Depression of the 1930s had a disastrous effect. The state sponsorship, required by
the high investment of the big social housing blocks, was at a stall. Many estates and projects were
postponed indefinitely, while the architectural profession itself became somewhat politically polar-
ized. Among other examples, such would be symbolized by the dismissal, in 1930, of the Bauhaus
director Hannes Meyer, who professed a Marxist doctrine, stressing the importance of collective
housing for the working class. Meyer’s replacement by Mies van der Rohe would cause some contro-
versy. Some accused Mies of being indulgent to the wealthy, since he would proceed in turning the
Bauhaus into a private school. This fact added to the sort of clientele he had, manifested in the luxury
of buildings such as the Barcelona Pavilion (1929) or of his Lange and Esters houses (1930) in an aristo-
cratic quarter of Krefeld (Germany). Nevertheless, such accusations would not avoid the Nazi gov-
ernment to close the school in 1933, under Mies’ direction, claiming it was a nest of communist
intellectualism. The staff would disperse, spreading their intellectuality all over the world. Regardless
Bauhaus’ circumstances, it is for a fact that the traumatic war experience, inflation and misery that
accompanied the growing urbanization process, allowed a social and political awareness much deeper
than, probably, what in normal circumstances would have been produced.
Somewhat in counter cycle with most of the opinions expressed in CIAM, the Americanized
Richard Neutra would defend an urban philosophy not necessarily dependable in the multi-story
apartment building as most of the proposals ended up analyzing and defending. The Austrian-born
Neutra had practice based in the USA and often went lecturing in Europe, but he was also one of the
few ‘non-European’ CIAM members, and he brought his American insight to the stand. He speaks

21
of a liberal American tradition of individually setting a place to live, and he compares the pros and
cons of both individual detached houses and multi-story apartment buildings. It is a reality that is
politically very distinct of the European, where state-sponsored housing programs were the rule to
face the housing problem, as it was the case in the Berlin or Moscow metropolis.
Neutra’s analysis does not focus in political aspects, yet in economic and technical ones, to demon-
strate his point of view. Describing the cons of apartment buildings, besides some technical issues,
such as fire safety, emergency exits, elevators or access stairs and corridors, he expresses a major
concern in the financing issues: “funding for large buildings finds greater difficulties than small buildings due to
the retention of credit”48, and “it is clear that tall buildings with modest public housing rent and intermediate large
green spaces should be funded by government agencies or other social organizations. Private enterprise is engaged in the
construction of tall buildings only when there is the possibility to set higher rents. The promoter’s greatest risk, the greater
financial difficulty of the project is, in this case, overcome by a higher profit per unit of surface, precisely what is meant to
be avoided in the first place”49. Neutra defends that low-rise seems to be generally more attractive to
families. In his opinion, the option between long commute times—to enjoy a pleasant suburban life
away from the ‘machine’ of the workplace—or the option to live in a place where there is not such a
obvious possibility to disconnect from work—where the worker both lives and inhabits in a ‘ma-
chine’50—seems to clearly pend for a preference onto the single-family household side51.
The analysis is certainly reflected in Neutra’s architectural path, in which many single-family
houses were designed, as is the case of the Lovell House (1929, Los Angeles, California) or the Kaufmann
Desert House (1946, Palm Springs, California). These would decisively influence a Californian architec-
tural trend—the region, land of both hope and despair, which had become the Eldorado symbol of
a migrant America escaping from the Great Depression52. Although Neutra’s houses were typically
built for an upper-class clientele affording broadacres of land, the defense case of low-rise is nonethe-
less remarkable because no one else in the early CIAM meetings seems to question the mass house
as solution to the house problem so vehemently. It is almost an obscure statement, in the sense that
it is certainly closer to a sort of liberalism, which CIAM’s mole, intellectually closer to socialist per-
spective, did not praise. Nevertheless, as it is known, many of the participants would design low-rise
and single-family houses throughout their practices.
In the CIAM intervention, Neutra would not mention the potential benefits of an urban life.
However, such should not sound strange, as in general the early CIAM was foremost concerned with
the house problem for the masses, not particularly with the individuals within those masses, as in a
sense, given the need for method, human beings were inevitably reducible to a sort of statistical
existence. The modern blocks are the exact correspondence of such abstraction. Around the ideal,
Cartesian modern block there is nothing but greenery and traffic routes, there is no mix, no density,
no (imperfect) life. It is like an architectural miniature model, perfect, ideal. Within there is only

22
‘function’. In this sense, no wonder Neutra seemed to ignore the benefits of a modern urban life, and
instead implying a preference for the ideal of the mythic countryside, or an agrarianism tendency,
which would pervade the works of many modern American architects, as was iconically the case of
Frank Lloyd Wright. In any case, Neutra also did not refer to the harsh implications of a sprawled,
motor depending, oil and overall resources consuming, de-densified territory, has it would become
more clearly evident decades later in the aftermath of the 1970’s oil crisis53.

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4 ALDO VAN EYCK’S ORPHANAGE SYNTHESIS

4.1 The Otterlo Circles

Aldo Van Eyck’s Otterlo Circles is an allegory for an architecture that has to deal with the ‘constancy
of change’54, with what is different from the past, and what is novelty, but also with what has remained
the same. An architecture that has to deal with what is different from an Other, but also with what is
bonding. Moreover, an architecture dealing with the substance of relationships, that is, an architecture
dealing with its structures55.
In a way, Man was and had been, in all places and all times, the same being, but man has also
changed in many ways. According to Eyck, “we can discover ourselves everywhere – in all places and ages –
doing the same things in a different way, feeling the same differently, reacting differently to the same”56. Throughout
History, man’s basic survival needs have been kept pretty much unchanged, and there are certainly
constant aspects related with the sensations of comfort, pleasure, security, happiness or beauty, which
span the times and places, although addressed in different forms throughout the different circum-
stances. Some of these have even become measurable or statistically predictable, such as comfort
temperature, correct amount of light to read, and so on57. However, man’s condition as social and
cultural being leads him to understand his inhabited spaces differently. Such varies in the changes
obtained via historical evolution, as well as regarding social or cultural differences. Social and cultural
aspects are as essential as food and shelter, because it is through them we can make sense of spaces
to establish places, affecting notions such as identity, security or privacy: human nature facing culture,
the individual facing the collective, difference and change acknowledged, and these ultimately re-
flected in the built form58.
From Van Eyck’s Circles we can interpret that the evolutionary organicism of the vernacular can-
not be mimicked. We can only understand its spirit, ‘the hearth’. From this position, there is no point
in architecture to pretend it is something it is not, in the sense of simulating the vernacular, since
architecture is not vernacular building, although it has most likely been so primordially, and although
embedded of its problem-solving authenticity. Hence, it is of no use to fantasize an idealized vernac-
ular, and uncritically borrowing its synchronistic or morphological characteristics to newly designed
forms, as such inevitably redounds in a sort of trasvestism, or formalistic heterotopic approach.
The valuable lesson of ‘the hearth’ is that architecture is to be inside-out, not outside-in or image-
in. Architecture is about form, framing a reality, bounding space-time, setting the potential for place,
and it exerts it through implied control mechanisms through design. Architecture is also misogynous
and spongy: it combines and absorbs. Architecture’s epistemologies also carry its own evolving cul-
tural background, which inevitably involves an academic knowledge of the classical, of geometries,

25
proportions, and so forth. Architects are set to deliver formal, ‘determined’ responses to habitat
problems that cannot simply ignore the academic training. More, they are impelled to provide form.
However, somewhere in-between an inevitable formal mimicking and the ‘hearth’ of the vernacular
there is a rich exploration field. It adds that architects are sometimes requested to solve problems
through design, when the real problems are far from being related with design: it is not the architect’s
job to ‘solve society’s ills’, he is an actor in society, just like any other.
Some, like Coderch, when confronted with the inevitable task of delivering form, refer to the
educational, the role-model responsibility of architecture in the everyday dysfunctional territory. In
this perspective, architecture represents something like drops of beauty laid in a sea of ugliness, virally
contaminating it59. Others, like John Habraken, avoid the ‘prejudice’ of form, sticking up with the
concepts, preferring to bind its epistemologies with the ever-changing realities at an analytical level.
If form is a frame in a certain moment in time, as soon as present passes it becomes outdated. In this
sense, Habraken’s conceptual stand is as valid as Coderch’s. As it is argued by Stewart Brand60, if we
get more interested in buildings than with architecture it is likely we realize that in many cases archi-
tecture is allergic to time, because architects keep being asked to build lasting monuments, frozen in
time. Yet buildings have no such presumption, buildings live in time, the same way we do, and as in
time we learn, and, in time, buildings learn.

4.2 The Orphanage

The Orphanage in Amsterdam (1959) is a peak expression of Aldo Van Eyck’s synthesis stated in
the Otterlo Circles61. In it, the classical tradition is underlined in the geometrical order of the primary
organization. The mode in which it is established a clear support of the ‘architraves’ in the building’s
columns also refers to this classical stance. Nonetheless, the ‘immutability and rest’ of the classical is
traversed by a dynamic ordering of reality. Circulation pays no deeds to axial symmetry or any sort
of classicist-like cannon. Different floor levels succeed, unfolding in inner streets, which have no
bond with central perspective, dynamically shifting, bonding to the unexpected, poised to enact life.
Space is structured, functionally attributed, yet ambivalent. Some critics would regard it as formally
suffering from a ‘Kasbah-itis’, as it resembled the much in vogue Kasbah’s, which were widely scruti-
nized at the epoch, and therefore criticized as being misadjusted to the Dutch climate, and so forth62.
In this sense, one may consider that the impressions of the vernacular were literally depicted to form.
Certainly, in a planned building such as this, the organicity of a Kasbah, with forms added in time
according to needs, could only be transcribed as a total and not as scattered additions in time. The
building is designed as it appears to sight. Its constructed form is final, not open-ended and additive,
although it may resemble so. In a way, its form is final whereas its content is open. Nonetheless, the

26
open-endedness in the consideration of social intercourse aspects, as well as the application of addi-
tive principles during the design process, are certainly innovative aspects brought about through this
building.
In the Orphanage, Van Eyck designed a configuration of places that were simultaneously contained
and overlapping. Guiding the design was a concern on the dialectic of opposites, or ‘twin phenomena’
(e.g. open-closed, inside-outside, small-big, much-little, many-few). Each unit is designed to work
independently, while relating with a larger part containing it. The univocal, isolated relationships of
functionalism, privileging the object, do not take place here. Instead, relationships become more im-
portant than the objects themselves. With such emphasis in the relationships and in the dialectic of
opposites, the (changing) ‘place’ acquires the potential of multiple significances. Van Eyck uses the
term polyvalence to describe such multiplicity of signification within each space. For instance, to
enter the complex, one must pass beneath an elevated part of the building, which leads to a patio.
Although they all occur in the exterior, these elements, alongside small shifts in the pavement, de-
marcate the building from the outside world. The whole building can be seen as a succession of
transitions, from a public to a private sphere, ultimately leading to the most reserved spaces, i.e. the
dormitories in the upper floor.
Van Eyck’s appraised notion of ‘aesthetics of number’ is also present, as a limited number of archi-
tectural elements compose the building’s ensemble. Differences in floor level, concrete stairs, circular
roof lights, dome-like roofs and partition walls of brick and glass set in many variations, but with a
recognizable underlay. There is a sort of underlying grammar, which is both material and dimension-
ally regulatory. Similarity strategies prevail, as structural or enclosing functions are assigned the same
materials (e.g. stairs in concrete, or walls in glass or brick), or the overall composition is orthogonally
regulated. These enable a typification of elements, proceeded in economic principles, which none-
theless enable an overall complex system of polyvalent spaces intended to encourage users to appro-
priate space.

4.3 Dialectics of control and freedom

How to hierarchize control, allowing freedom is a typical structuralist stance, to which if regarding
a long-run time component, where buildings are submitted to change or re-use over time, it may also
be included in a sustainability sphere. Aldo Van Eyck’s Orphanage has seen its use in time been trans-
formed. In 1987, the building became place of learning with the arrival of the Berlage Institute to inhabit
it, and the building has shown its capacity to withstand the changes of a new occupancy in its stride.
When it later became used as an office building, little of the former internal characteristics were left.

27
Nonetheless, a primary structure withstood the changes. Most of the sensitively crafted interior dis-
appeared, and yet the building managed to endure the changes within, revealing itself as a truly open
functional structure.
In any case, this revelation was not premeditated by the architect, he has actually shown some
disappointment for that fact to his peers. It was Aldo Van Eyck’s influences, his mental immersion
on the program requirements, and need of its original inhabitants, that allowed him to initially devise
the form, transposing the requirements and needs to spatial qualities. The building was initially de-
signed with the children in mind, on providing them the best possible conditions with the available
means. In this sense, the form was deterministic, custom-made, crafted for each purpose.
Hence, there is little surprise in the fact that Van Eyck was not very fond of the change63. The
architectural ‘order’ of the building was initially set for open interpretation space-by-space, place-by-
place. It was open to a certain speech, but it was not thought of for a language shift as it occurred
with a radical change of use. Nonetheless, the building’s structure endured such radical language shift,
gutted from its original dialectics. Part of the original is still there, but the building inevitably acquired
a very different character. The structural elements and all the outer shell, including external walls and
roofing, are what most outstandingly remained.
Regarded from a life-cycle point of view of the constituent parts of the building, the stronger
elements endured the passage of time, while the more perishable or easily replaceable have proven to
have a shorter expectancy. The changes in the Orphanage also highlight the difficult congruence be-
tween the theoretical arguments and the practice. In Van Eyck’s case, answering the emotional needs,
as he had so remarkably expressed in the Otterlo Circles, was a motive that he attempted to fulfill, yet
forgetting that, as in most buildings that endure, is quite common for the initial purposes to change
over time.

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5 DOWN MAGRITTE’S RABBIT HOLE
The legacy of the painter René Magritte brilliantly illustrates the questioning of signs, and it cer-
tainly illustrates the games of appearances in which meaning can be diluted. Magritte aimed to create
paintings that would, in his words, “challenge the real world”64. He achieved such questioning by chal-
lenging us with different visual expressions of displacements and mismatches of the objects (their
‘reality’, labelling or truthfulness).
With the The Treachery of Images (La trahison des images, 1928-29) a pipe is pictured with a caption
saying ‘this is not a pipe’ (Ceci n’est pas une pipe). In the same year, Magritte publishes a less know article
in the journal La Revolution Surréaliste, generally exposing his doctrine and showing that what he had
playfully portrayed in the painting was only a part of a larger set of problems he was working on,
dealing with different aspects of the relation between words, images, and reality65.
Concordantly, Magritte would eventually say that such was not a pipe, but a mere representation
of one, and if he had written otherwise, that he would be lying. Indeed the painting is an image of a
pipe, not a real one. Alfred Korzybski similarly remarked, “the map is not the territory”66, also noting the
difference between the abstraction and the thing in itself and their dependency on a similarity relation.
The latter is an argument particularly visible in contemporary engagement of meaning/becoming
within a context as brought about through electronic digital media. Maps can induce territories as if
hyper-real, virtual landscapes. That also stands for diagrams, architectural models or sketches, as they
embed the potential to project the real (or the hyper-real) environments. Electronic digital media
brings not only the possibility to visualize or manipulate the virtual-hyper-real, authoring models
using the computer code (binary, elemental difference), or navigating through representations ena-
bled by those. It changes fundamental space and time notions, bringing them closer together, to the
point of no more distinguishable substance, to the point of meaning and representation to be hardly
recognizable from one another67.
Magritte’s would further develop the theme of image and meaning in the Interpretation of Dreams
(1930). As in a child’s reading primer, the painting pictures six different elements (egg, shoe, hat,
candle, glass and hammer) and their respective captions. Yet, none of the captions corresponds to
what should be the expected description of the image above: the shoe is captioned as ‘the moon’, the
hat as ‘the snow’, the hammer as ‘the desert’, and so on. With this, Magritte draws attention to a
certain arbitrariness of language. There is seemingly no real connection between the picture and its
caption, but there is no reason for it not to signify something else instead.
Indeed, when learning a new thing, we are implicitly instructed on how to establish some connec-
tions (how to frame this and that, what and where, and so on) and, by such, to make meaning out of
it. By reading Magritte’s painting we are invited to make our own connections between the sets of
signifiers. The painting explicitly keeps options open, preserving the secret of its final signifier. Such

29
sorts of mechanisms are certainly not exclusive of painting, being also found in other forms of ex-
pression. They are eminent in poetry, where, by proposing parallels, the reader is invited to make his
own connections between apparently distinct signifiers. Nonetheless, in a way, Magritte is also im-
plying that beyond words there are just empty signifiers.
In Not to be reproduced (1937), a similar theme reappears. The painting depicts a man seemingly
looking to what it seems like a mirror, facing his back towards us, the painting’s observer. Yet, where
we would expect to see his face staring at us through the reflection in the mirror, we again see his
back reproduced.
In the painting portraying a pipe, beyond the words ‘ceci n’est pas une pipe’, we were lead (invited)
to realize that the image was fake. In Not to be reproduced we are lead to realize for sure that the very
same words of the pipe were images themselves, and not only because they were carefully drawn and,
by that, resembling images of words in themselves. In it, we do not see the man’s face, we see his
back again, and immediately we are confronted with the existence of both backs as images. Moreover,
we can even realize we are behind that back, becoming ourselves images of us, as if we were that very
man, as if we would ourselves be representations. Such would not be ‘truth’, but it would not either
be ‘false’. Here something leads us to think we are seeing a mirror. Yet, Magritte shows that some-
thing much more important is there. On the one hand, the mirror (or what is represented as a mirror),
and the whole representation (or the painting as a whole and the very seeming reality beyond it) can
be deceiving. Conversely, everything is ultimately a mental representation whose bond to a sense of
real (as in Abbot’s Flatland where we cannot perceptually imagine more dimensions than those we
experience) is constrained by an outstanding ‘otherness’, an invisible ‘otherness’ we cannot reach.
Finally, with paintings such as Son of a Man (1964), everything is inevitably hidden inside of another
thing, like a matryoshka, or so it may appear. This painting portrays what it appears to be a man behind
what it appears to be an apple, and what appears to be the face of what it appears to be a man is
hidden behind of what it appears to be an apple. With it, we can no longer be conformed at all to
what we see. We want to see what can be the face of a man that seems being behind the apple that
we seem to see. Appearances, games, shades, conspiracies, possibilities, is it the artist trapping us, or
what else is going on? We may think there is nothing there, there is no apple, no man, and no face:
there is an image, empty. Still, we want, we wish, we desire to see.
We, humans, are curious, and so we want to see behind what we see, to the point there is nothing
else to see, and still, unresigned, we will want to see more – how long is the coast of Britain?, asked
Benoît Mandelbrot. We can go there and scratch the surface of the painting. But most certainly there
is nothing behind the apple (except probably the materials of the canvas and the frame that holds
them behind, and so forth). There is only the apple itself, or rather the image of the apple, which is
not an apple at all, but is not also the image of an apple: it is all, so it seems, a conspiracy of the mind.

30
Yet it appears also not to be empty, it looks like there is something, something we can relate to, or
more precisely, something we can relate with a reproduction of some possible similar other (because
the image is reproduction of yet another), and produce (non)sense of an image of an image. We,
humans, are curious and we, humans, build meanings, and that is a standpoint that in language terms
only humans can subscribe. Conversely, we can build meanings even if language is absent, or signs
undecipherable, or even if we cannot express them to others.
With ‘ceci n’est pas une pipe’, as Foucault notes in an essay on this painting, there is the presence of
the calligram, ideogram, or the image-text and text-in-image68. With it, we enter in a tautological set
of remembrances, of spaces within spaces. The eye (mind) deciphers, but the mind (eye) is equivocal.
To erase the signifier, we have to do more than that. To erase the signifier, we have to erase the
graphical set of the text, we have to erase the frame of the painting, voiding the void, and still, re-
markably unparadoxically, it is unattainable because the signifier is within, we are it. The pipe, while
denying, is denied of its denial, it becomes a calligrammatic cyclic redundancy. Ultimately, it is a verbal
game, a language game (isn’t everything?), but a very serious one. It outstandingly evidences the trap
of language, which is also the trap of the (human) subject behind the (human) organism. As in William
Blake’s words in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1908): “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing
would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of
his cavern”.
The pipe is nowhere. The real is ‘mine’ and, as present tense, keeps escaping, wrapped by ever-
treachery reference points, shattered, fragmented, but ever instantaneously re-assembled, ever ready
to, again, and again be built, meaningfully. Anyhow, this is just an interpretation, and it seems rea-
sonable to presume that there are multiple other readings out there.

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6 ALBERT FREY’S NATURE AND INDUSTRY SYNTHESIS

6.1 A living architecture

Albert Frey (b.1903-d.1998) was born in Switzerland, and had a life path that took him, in 1928,
to Le Corbusier’s atelier where, among other projects, he collaborated in the Villa Savoye. Soon he
would become the first architect in America to have worked with Le Corbusier, with whom he would
keep close contact. It seems it was his innermost desire to embrace and explore developments related
with the unveiling of a new architecture—“I went there because I had seen his books, his architecture, and some
of his published works: I decided that I had much to learn with him”.
It was this restless desire, added by his own travels and life experiences, which would lead him to
later develop the ‘new’ in his own terms. This would happen after moving to the USA, in 1931. The
early times there where spent in New York, working with A. Lawrence Kocher. Together, they design
the Aluminaire house (1931), built in a lightweight structure of steel and aluminum and embodying a
prefabrication philosophy. The house would be chosen to incorporate MoMA’s International Style ex-
hibition in 1932.
The Great Depression was striking, and in that same year, Frey travels through the USA, making
photos of industrial constructions—metallic gas containers, bridges, electrical towers and the desert
landscape. This new country delivered him a wonderland of new materials, and industrial types of
constructions, but it also brought a fascination for the mesmerizing landscapes, most notably the
immense of the desert, with its contrasts of heat and cold, flat and mountain, dust and rock, heart
and sky, death and life…, and its shapes, shades, textures and feelings. The material gathered from
his journeys would result in the book In Search of a Living Architecture, posteriorly published in 1939,
where he sets a programmatic tone for his own architecture, manifesting an appraisal for the forms
of nature and placing them in dialogue with the industrial forms of man. In his journeys he would
also visit Neutra and Schindler, which he recognizes as influences alongside Le Corbusier and Mies
Van der Rohe: “(they helped with) the idea of expanding the house in the landscape”69.
From his words, architecture is originated in nature, and hence it must be drawn back to it. The
splendor of nature is the ever-unreachable model of man’s artifacts. Its perfection is greater than architecture
can ever aspire to. Engaging with architecture is also being aware of what surround us all the time, both natural
and human (made) landscape. Accordingly, he writes the following: “observe carefully how things come about in
nature (…). See lots of architecture… get full of it”. The new, modern, architecture must be a synthesis of these spheres,
economy, efficiency, and beauty taught by the natural forms, allied to the possibilities and limitations of man-
made materials, of which the industrially produced are the highest example. In addition, it is not only the
haptic properties that one should observe from nature, but the very principles of spatial and formal compo-
sition, as altogether they enrich the new architecture: “it is by studying the forms of nature, which have always inspired

33
mankind, and those of traditional architecture, which have induced beyond practical usefulness, for theories of ideas and
structure that we will discover the basic principles which guide the creation of shape, space, and composition and be able
to build a living architecture that not only provides us with physical comfort but with spiritual joy as well (…). I studied
forms, industrial and natural, and then I analyzed what the form meant (…). Two fundamental elements of composition
are combined in one structure, an illustration of the way modern methods enrich visual experience”.
Frey considers that there is not an inevitably to attain a continuity solution between nature, needs
and human work: “I try to have a preconceived idea about the building, without seeing how the location is, and by
that I try to compose and to make architecture out of it with the functions and all the rest. I try to work with nature…
I do not aggresse it, I respect it. Nature is beautiful. After all, we come from it. We have grown for millions of years in
contact with it (…). You must also have fantasy working out. After all, that is life. When you think in what is
happening in nature, in fantastic forms, in birds and animals and all. That is where creativity comes in”. Anyhow,
he ends up analyzing every bit of the site, as it was the case of House Frey II, where he spent months
just to analyze the sun position along the year until finally deciding the exact location and orientation,
and where he surveyed every inch to fit the building with the rocky plot. Therefore, his perspective
is not about not a dichotomous relation nature vs (man)machine, but a dialectical one, where each
has its own space, but each has to be aware of the space of other.
Work would lead Frey to Palm Springs, in 1933, to supervise the construction of a joint project
with Kocher, the Kocher-Sampson house (1934). Since the 1920’s, the desert around Palm Springs,
became a rest and winter vacations area for rich and bohemian people – the desert as a safe haven
for the realities of daily life. In less than two decades, the desert also became an experimentation field
of modern architecture, as exemplified by the Popenoe Cabin (Rudolph Schindler, 1922), or the Miller
house (Richard Neutra, 1937), embryo of what would follow years later with the masterpiece Kaufman
house (Richard Neutra, 1946).

6.2 House Frey I

After constructing the Kocher-Sampson, Frey decides to stay in Palm Springs, where, in 1941, he
builds the central nucleus of his House Frey I. Experimentation is visibly the greatest driver, in a house
that started as a minimum bachelor pad house, in 1941, and ended as a family house in 1953. That is
reflected both in the formal language and in the design philosophy, with its additive and transforma-
tive approach. The building began with the design of horizontal planes elevated by vertical walls,
which are either transparent or opaque. Initially, these recalled a tridimensional neoplasticist interplay,
with planes extending towards the exterior, somewhat resembling Mies Van der Rohe’s archetypal
Barcelona Pavilion (1929). Experimentation is also extended to the use of concepts such as growth and
adaptability, since the house went through different stages, which would follow an intention and

34
expression through ruled or modular architectural elements. Finally, these make use of industrially
borrowed materials, which further enhance the underlying general theme of man (artifice) facing
nature.
The bachelor pad is a wise composition of elements that make a powerful play of contrasts. One of
these occurs between the aluminum as external coating, the rose color used in the internal walls and
the orange tones of the furniture. There is also the contrast between the machine-like character of
the house and the desert where it sits. The original house is of 16×20ft (4.9×6.1m) and is composed
of a main room, which works as a living room at day and bedroom at night, a toilet and a small
kitchen. The walls extend towards the outside, and the flat roof creates small porches in all four sides
(one of which bigger than the others in order to park the car). Although relatively small, the vertical
plans expand the house towards to the exterior, which increases the perceptual sense of space. It is a
dot in the desert, from where any direction is possible, limitless.
The ensemble is articulated through a module of 4×4ft (1.2×1.2m), which is doubled in height to
8ft (2.4m), which is based on the dimensions of the asbestos roof plates that are used in the building.
Sliding doors are thoroughly used, enabling multiple spatial configurations. Finally, there seem to be
a special cherishing on showing technical apparatus, as both the car and the air conditioning are often
visible elements in the photographs.
From the bachelor house (1941), to the final family house (1953), there were five recognizable
stages of construction. The first is the house unit with main room, toilet, kitchen, and outside porches,
beginning with the 4ft (1.2m) modulation, interior delimitation of 16x20ft, roof covering of 28×28ft
(8.5×8.5m), and 8ft height. In stage two, a swimming pool, with concrete pavement and furniture,
was added in the south, extending the house modulation, measuring 31x28feet (9.4×8.5m). In stage
three, a pergola is added around the swimming pool, with lightweight stainless steel supports, and
white coated glue-laminated wood shades (which would not resist the Palm Springs sun); in addition,
a discreet landscaping was implemented, by adding some palm trees to the ensemble. Finally, in 1953,
the house goes through two main changes. One is the horizontal extension, including the interior
patio, construction of a new metallic and glass-fiber pergola, and colored (yellow, rose, green) corru-
gated glass-fiber wall panel. The other is the vertical extension, with the construction of the room in
a new superior floor, with circular plan and eight, hatch-like, round windows.
About the superior volume, Frey said: “Thomas Jefferson had a second floor (in its house in Monticello) which
was more octagonal, but also had circular windows. Then I remembered a Mayan astronomic observatory which I had
seen in Chichen Itza, called the Sun Tower, a round building with just a few windows. The bed was in the middle and had
a 360º view. The visors protected the openings from the sun. They were cut in angle and its depth varied according to
the side they were at”. In the interior, the walls were covered with a yellow coated cushioning, to produce a

35
cozy effect to the room, “the curtains (…) were in a sort of midnight blue, so that by night, when you would close
them, you would feel it was good to sleep with”70.
On the constructive solutions to the patio, Frey said: “(The curved thin wall) was in fiber-glass, which
could be in rose, green or yellow. It was a structural challenge… it is like a water tank, it is corrugated and sel-sustained
thanks to the curves. Therefore, one can say it is a wall of only a 1/16inch thick, instead of a heavy wall of some kind.
It only had a pair of braces…, two tubes, …(…). I like to make things with the least material possible. Speaking in
economy… I am much more interested in achieving the maximum by the minimum of money. It is a challenge by itself.
It is very easy to scatter and spend a lot of money, but that’s not very interesting. After all, the economy controls many
things”71.
The house reflects its authorship, revealing a pragmatic mode of thinking, allied with a particularly
ecological view of the world and a certain desert mystique. Technically, industrialization is thoroughly
used, with adaptation of new materials and industrial techniques applied to architecture and an overall
philosophy of economy in the approach to architecture, its space, and its materials. Artistically, early
works suggest a more abstract approach, with a neoplasticist base and the use of industrial and natural
landscape as references. Later, it is also observable a certain tendency on a sort of pop approach.
Overall, it reflects tendencies of liberty, of no constraints to pre-established paths, economy and
ecology, of experimentation and zeitgeist, but fundamentally on a path in the search of the commons
between machine and nature with man.

36
7 THE ADDITIVE ARCHITECTURE OF JØRN UTZON
AND THE ESPANSIVA SYSTEM

7.1 Vernacular and natural influences

Somewhere around 1965, while working in a little site office in the Sydney Opera House, Jørn Utzon
gets up and with his 6B pencil writes the words ‘ADDITIVE ARCHITECTURE’ on the wall, adding
that ‘we have now broken through the sound barrier’. The sudden epiphany was in fact the result of a long,
slow and laborious development, retrieved from each design, each of his extensive travels, each read-
ing, each experience, all synthesized in a brief concise expression and subsequently in a homonymous
manifest72.
As his documentation attests, Utzon cherished and shared an open view towards the world. In 1948
he writes: “To understand all the inspiration present in every one of Man’s countless means of expression, to work on
the basis of our hands, eyes, feet, stomachs, on the basis of our movements and not of statistical norms and rules created
on the principle of what is most usual—this is the way forward to an architecture that is both varied and human”73.
Early on, in 1949, he had visited the pre-Columbian sites of Chichen-Itza, Uxmal and Monte Alban,
where he became seduced by the magnificence of the methodically built rock buildings and the dia-
logue they established with their setting. From the XIIth century China, Li Jie’s Ying Tsao Fa Shi tech-
nical treatise on architecture and craftsmanship, Utzon was impressed by the power of a flexible kit
of parts. Likewise, the Japanese domestic architecture, as for instance depicted by Tetsuro Yoshida in
The Japanese House and Garden (1955), with its apparent but intricate simplicity, would also leave its
imprint; namely, in the use of a constructive philosophy based in a lightweight tectonic-like approach,
integrating modularity principles, and finally, all peacefully resting in a precise relation with a sur-
rounding nature, which is also often a construction. The observation of natural structures, as depicted
in Karl Blossfeldt’s photographies or D’Arcy Thompson’s writings, was one of his most prized sub-
jects. The formal cohesion of villages such as Ait Benhaddou, which he had visited in a trip to Mo-
rocco in 1947, his study of Chinese Buddhist monasteries, or his fascination in Islamic art, how its
exceptional buildings coexisted with the medina underneath, are examples of the importance given
to the vernacular structures74.

7.2 An Additive Architecture

The kind of dialogue undertaken between the built structure and its surroundings, artificial and
natural, would become remarkably visible in buildings such as the National Assembly Building in Kuwait
(1968) or the Sydney Opera House (1957). This dialogue is in both these cases also a dialogue between

37
heavy and light—the gravitas and levitas—acting as propellers to technological development. Indeed,
the play of inside-outside transparencies, dialoguing with the surroundings is remarkable in the first,
with the heavy elements framing the transparency screens towards the outside. As in the pre-Colum-
bian plateau buildings, the Sydney Opera House conveys a feeling of being firmly tied to the ground.
Simultaneously, above the masonry plinth, the white shells seem to be lifting in the air, as sails of a
vessel ready to depart from the harbor at any time.
The shape of the shells incorporates a research that evolved towards simplicity, arising as both a
way of technical problem-solving and overall design philosophy. In the early designs, the shells re-
quired a calculus with non-Euclidian curvatures, which was virtually impossible to compute without
digital methods, non-existent at the time. Instead, as it evolved, the apparent complexity of the shells’
curvature became in fact derived from the segments of a sphere, the simplest sort of curvature. By
simplifying and thinking modularly, it was enabled a greater control and rationalization of the building
process. That occurs up to the tiniest elements, from the sphere-derived structural curvature concep-
tion, up to the modular development of the components of the white skin. These are also evidence
that a modular approach is not necessarily opposed to, say, an organic approach. Rather, it is evidence
that these can be effective means, regardless of the intentioned form and its degree of complexity75.
In Utzon’s architecture there is a sort of grammar that became progressively recognizable, where
every component of the building is interrelated, both conceptually and tectonically. Utzon’s Additive
Architecture manifesto is the utter expression of this mind-set76. With the manifesto, there is an implicit
appraisal to the virtues of mass production set towards formal freedom. A strong underlying idea is
that is possible to devise architecture from a limited set of elemental components of shared similarity,
which nonetheless enable to attain apparently complex shapes. This can be achieved as straightfor-
wardly as by juxtaposing the components with nuanced repetitions, varying with no more than simple
geometrical operators (e.g. translating or rotating). The concept thus entails a kind of repetition that
does not necessarily lead to uniformity, but ultimately to an apparent organicity. It acquires its fun-
daments in a fascination by nature’s structures, or on the vernacular built forms, and aims a return to
it, retrieving spaces and shapes that although artificial, aim to achieve an ever-more balanced relation
with their settings. The cases of the Farum’s Town Center (1966), the Herning College Campus (1969), the
housing Skåne schemes (1954)—realized in the Kingo Houses (1957) and the Fredensborg Houses (1965)—
or the Espansiva Housing System (1969), are remarkable examples of Utzon’s efforts to incorporate
Additive Architecture principles as an overall building philosophy in his works.
The realizations of the Skåne scheme are remarkable examples of taking the additive principles to
their ultimate consequences, embracing it both in the public and in the private sphere of the houses
and their ensemble. The Kingo Houses master plan denotes a unity of similarities. In a closer scale, the
designs are based in a one-story square atrium house, whose boundary changes either accordingly to

38
the relative positioning to the next square, to the topography of the terrain or to the customization
of the lot by its inhabitants. With the same configuration, the master plan could have been more rigid.
Instead, option was to codify it spatially to establish a dynamic dialogue with the setting and in time.
As consequence, the subtle changes that occur, either by topographical differences or by the custom-
ization of the units, transform the entire house complex in a vivid and by no means monotonous
ensemble. Both the public dimension of the exterior gardens, and the private dimension of the open-
ended courtyards, is bonded by a multi-scale approach where the unity of the system is perceived in
the diversity of its appearance.

7.3 The Espansiva System

The ability to individualize home in a flexible way would be the core of the building concept
Espansiva, which was also developed under the Additive Architecture principles. The initial goal of Es-
pansiva was to develop, produce and combine components for single-family houses with wood as the
predominant structural material. It envisioned the use of standardized, low-cost components, based
in a single floor modular composition. Aside conceding individual clients the ability to plan, as well
as to alter or extend in time, it also had the potential to be extended towards larger complexes. What-
ever the case, the system endured the potential to retain a formal uniformity (or resemblance) in
diversity. The components were to be put together in a very large number of spatial combinations,
be easy to assemble and produced at a competitive price. Combined they could potentially meet
different programs and space sizes requirements—houses, schools, motels, and so forth.
The modules consist of small pavilions, with a layout with fixed width and variable lengths, with
a column in each corner. In a conceptual stage these were set to come in four layout sizes. However,
the developed version of the design contains only three layout types: A (201.6×300cm); B
(321.6×300cm); and C (501.6×300cm)—measures referring to inside dimensions. The A-type layout
allowed a transition space with or without storage space, a small room, a toilet, a small toilet plus a
transition space, or other variations. The B-type layout essentially delivered the net dimensions of a
basic bedroom, a home office, a kitchen, or a dining area, among other eventual variations. The C-
type layout could be used as an open area (e.g. for a living room, normally with two joint C-types),
or joining the possibilities of both A and B types together under a single slope of roof (e.g. for a
bedroom plus toilet or plus transition area, kitchen plus dining area or plus transition area, and so
forth). Regarded in brut, the additive philosophy of the system seemingly requires a bigger lot size if
compared with a traditional construction system. Nevertheless, its effectiveness enables a spatial ra-
tionalization that may counter that very idea.

39
 The main structure, two connected porticoes in laminated wood, rested in four prefabricated con-
crete beams, which were anchored to concrete foundations. Doors and windows had roughly 2.20m
and a minimum floor-height roughly 2.40m, where from runs a standard roof with 17.5º slope fol-
lowing the length dimension. Given the fixed width, but variable length, this means different top
heights for each type of module. This meant a great potential in volumetric variability. Allied to the
potential variability in the layout combinations, and the possibility of final coating in any kind of
compatible material, this meant enormous potential combinations, in layout, volume and renderings.
The project was initiated by the timber industry, and it was intended that the timber dealers would
stock elements to enable a faster construction process. In principle, a family could pick up the ex-
pansion of their house and carry it on a trailer. Extension, alteration and retraction should be easily
possible, as the structure was light and flexible. People would not be tied to specific designers or
manufacturers, as a great deal of variability was possible. All kinds of standardized doors, windows,
claddings and roofs would be possible to include in the dwelling. Utzon was greatly inspired by Alvar
Aalto’s thoughts on standardized flexibility of the interwar period, which were ultimately reflected in
the development Aalto’s AA System (1937-45): simple combinations of standardized units would
make possible to create a great variety and diversity of expression.
Espansiva concept had several particularities which were somewhat predicting a future of the con-
struction industry, implying themes such as industrial prefabrication, mass customization, system
supplies, modularity, user configuration, flexibility, and so forth. For many reasons the project was
never realized in a large scale. Among other things, it revealed several technical weaknesses, of which
most notoriously a significant waste of material. Additionally, there was still a lot of work on the
construction site to put the house together, finishing the façades, of interiors, and so on, which im-
peded many of the though-of advantages. Furthermore, there was no thought of installations, as these
also had to be made on site.
The use of mass produced, generic elements, was embedded in an intention of enabling to build
each house regardless their location. In first hand, this may seem to contradict Utzon’s concepts of
harmony with the natural setting, as it would be eloquently achieved in his later Kingo Houses. In any
case, the Espansiva case should also be seen as a part of an overall effort of providing quality housing
at affordable prices while enabling individualization, an effort that throughout modern architectural
history has been undertaken by many of its most remarkable figures. Espansiva is embedded of a
economic spirit that nonetheless embraces configurations that are gradually more elaborate. As in
nature or in the vernacular, change is acknowledged, ultimately hardwired in the additive philosophy.

40
8 JOHN TURNER’S NETWORK AND HIERARCHY
The central theme of who decides what for whom is an enquiry on how we house ourselves, how we
keep healthy, how we learn. It is an enquiry on the control (e.g. political, economic, commercial,
institutional) exerted in modern societies. It is also an enquiry on how to regard such control as a
means or as the ends, and how to exert our (fundamental) freedoms. Moreover, it an enquire on how
to integrate user participation within housing and dignifying living conditions, which should be avail-
able for all, as expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1949), and recognized in many
national constitutions.
Although so far never entirely fulfilled, John Turner’s views, expressed in Housing by People: Towards
Autonomy in Building Environments (1976)77, have been implied in some attempts in Europe to involve
residents’ participation concerning the built environment. That was the case of the cohousing move-
ment in Scandinava, of the works on self-building and participatory architecture of the 1960’s and
1970’s, or of the work of architects such as Walter Segal, and the development of the Segal System.
The latter pioneered a low-cost system of timber-frame building, where anyone who could pick up a
hammer could build its own house78.
Turner departs from an open-ended standpoint, empowering users while advocating the use of
short footprint construction products. He writes: “In historical fact, good housing like plentiful food, is more
common where it is locally produced through network structures and decentralizing technologies… these are the only
ways and means through which satisfactory goods and services can be obtained, and that they are vital for a stable
planet… We have no right whatsoever to tell others to tighten their belts while our own belies protrude so much that we
cannot see the poverty we stand on”79. From his work, it can be understood that, in housing, focus must be
put in understanding different control strategies. To attain it, typically there are two distinct lines of
approach. In one locally self-governed housing systems, as illustrated in the historical, idealized ver-
nacular or in less romanticized forms of vernacular such as the contemporary slums. On the other,
policies of central control, ascribing to a deterministic top-down stance. On the one hand, there is
autonomy, on the other, heteronomy.

41
Figure 1. Diagrammatic representation of patterns of decision and control describing two opposite systems (locally or centrally governed)
as mirror images.

Turner’s diagram-grid eloquently depicts the problematic (Figure 1). Decision-making sets of op-
erations (i.e. planning, construction and management), are crossed with institutions controlling the
resources for the process itself (i.e. the users or popular sector, the suppliers or private commercial
sector and the regulators or public sector). Provided that the goal is the same (i.e. to deliver proper
housing and living conditions), probably the most balanced solutions lay somewhere in between the
autonomy and heteronomy poles80.
In his view, the high and inevitable spiraling cost of hierarchic systems typically creates a dispro-
portionate dependency on borrowed capital. Such ultimately leads to such systems to collapse finan-
cially. On the other hand, systems kept by network structures tend to flourish. They only become
unstable or disappear because of movements by hierarchic structures. In low-income cases, the in-
vestment made by highly hierarchical structures is hardly recoverable. On the other hand, apparently,
the closer is a system to the user, the more likely will be that in the long run the system will prove
viable. Emotional aspects, such as a sense of belonging, certainly will be reflected in user engagement
and responsibility, leading to a closer care with reflex in a long run. Nonetheless, such is not always
possible to achieve in architectural solutions, even if incentives are seemingly the right ones.

42
9 JOHN HABRAKEN’S SUPPORTS
Mass housing is an important area on which aspects to streamline user participation have been
thoroughly researched. In The Netherlands, The Foundation for Architectural Research (SAR) has since
1964 been on the forefront of such research, embedded in a spirit of using prefabricated elements
for both the loadbearing elements and the detachable parts. The quintessential conceptualization is
due to John Habraken’s distinction of support and infill (or supports theory, as it is also known)81,
which establishes the principle of three autonomous levels: building, subdivisions and furnishings.
Among the core references to the theory stands the Schröder House. Influences also came from the
Dutch structuralist tradition of Aldo Van Eyck, Piet Blom and Herman Hertzberger. The proposals
made a distinction between permanent ‘hard core’ and flexible and changing interior. A famous prec-
edent for the Supports’ idea is too the Plan Obus by Le Corbusier. Habraken's proposal is based in a
fundamental concept: the separation of the collective, permanent components of a residential build-
ing (i.e. what strictly corresponds to ordinances, structures, technical installations, and openings: the
support), from that which could be transformed by the individual dweller (i.e. the interior partitions,
closets, bathrooms and kitchens elements, that is, the detachable units: the infill).
By establishing clear gradients between public and private, exalting and improving them in tran-
sition spaces, and with the possibility of users transforming the base building, the supports theory,
applied to residential buildings and neighborhoods, has facilitated the addressing of the typical com-
plexity of high-density housing. The developments were both embedded of a participatory philoso-
phy, and an acknowledgment of the importance of industrialized methods of construction, with the
structures conceived through the support and infill concept.
A durable support would be linked to the aspect of housing production that represented communal
responsibility, and the infill stood for individual control. In the course of the 1960s, Habraken got to
know other proponents who designed alternative structures for the city, such as Constant and Yona
Friedman, but he considered their plans too utopian. However, he did not make himself drawings of
models portraying his supports proposal, because he wanted it to be adaptable to all kinds of formal-
isms. In the core of his proposal lays the system, the method, and the set of rules.
Amongst SAR’s research developments, in support may be also distinguished the bearer and the
infrastructure, both retaining a community’s responsibility, and individual infill, accompanied by mod-
ularized dimensions which intrinsically facilitate the incorporation of prefabrication elements. An-
other development is the conception of prefabricated service units for kitchens and bathrooms, their
inner characteristics and layout position in free plan layouts, in order to enable users to furnish freely
their living spaces.
Among other proposals, in SAR was developed a zoning system in order to ensure an optimization
of these aspects. The proposal divides the house in three zones, parallel to the façades. The two zones

43
closer to the outer walls are used for living spaces. Between these and the third, placed inside and
containing the services, there is a margin allowing for flexibility in the zones’ dimensions. The posi-
tion of inner partitions and service shafts obeys a modular dimensional system, which sets users’ free
to adjust the space to their needs according to the underlying system. Therefore, the users were to be
engaged in the design process, which gave them a greater freedom, while it was assured an industrial
efficiency regardless the choices within the system.
Certainly Hertzberger’s Central Beheer reflects some of the supports notions, giving it a tectonic
sort of sense. The discreet modes of a tectonic approach seem adjusted to constructive elements that
can be distinguishable, and such can be paradigmatically ascribed to a Northern European kind of
architecture of an industrialized influence. However, these are too fit to a sort of archetypal mass and
volume of the South82. Indeed, by no direct means linked to the supports theory, the example of
Alvaro Siza’s Malagueira Quarter (1977) is an expressive manifestation of an architectural design com-
bining control and freedom, where there is an implied use of structure and infill presupposes, alt-
hough acting at a different level in a Southern architecture.

44
10 ENACTING FREEDOM IN HERMAN HERTZBERGER’S CENTRAL BEHEER
As it has been expressed by Herman Hertzberger, “(Structuralism) has proliferated in everything in terms
of putting things together… All sorts of systems and especially the computer systems are now considered to be Structur-
alism. I understood it as a way of increasing freedom: by having some things structured you get more freedom, not less.
The misunderstanding others have is that they use the idea to keep control”83. However, the idea of an architec-
ture where there is a primary concern in focusing in the individual (how to incentivize participation)
has been proven to be hard to put in practice. The set of rules (e.g. economic, legal) that have to be
followed to make a building is tighter and tighter, as “today everything has to be fixed and decided before the
work starts”84. However, it is also a more increasingly industrialized architecture, relaying more and
more in the catalogue picking, rather than developing elaborate detailing from scratch85.
In Hertzberger’s work there is a philosophy accompanying both his buildings and his writings,
which poises a certain freedom in spatial relations. That translates in spatial conceptions favoring
appropriation and customization by users. In such, the concepts of structure and filling, in line with
Noan Chomsky’s notion of competence and performance, are essential to understand a reconciliation of
the individual with the collective in the architectural production86. In fact, Hertzberger’s architecture
attempts to be structuralist up to the tiniest scale. In a way, he regards form as a consequence, not
the design motive or aspiration, in an overall concern in designing spaces that are clear but complex,
solid but adaptable. Indeed, Hertzberger’s structuralistic approach does not end up in some kind of
external form, it goes all the way to the smaller scale, and from within, with an underlying idea of
spatial articulation, of providing conditions for people to flexibly occupy space87.
In that respect, the Central Beheer building in Apeldoorn (1968-72) is probably Hertzberger’s
most eloquent built example. The design brief asked for a building for the headquarters of an insur-
ance group whose activities were not limited to the insurance sector, but which also offered other
services. It should also be possible to allocate space, and the building should be able to house one-
thousand people. Overall, the building would predictably require frequent changes, which ought to
be possible to accommodate within itself, and such meant adaptability was to be a permanent condi-
tion.
The building is a sort of archipelago of 56 square-based units of 9×9m, which are subdivided into
smaller ones. The spatial design is based on a basic modular scheme of a combined cruciform struc-
ture, generically including three types of spaces: basic functional spaces of square base; large horizon-
tal circulation spaces in between the square spaces; and void vertical spaces. The cruciform spatial
structure is co-related with the building’s primary construction elements, undergoing two comple-
mentary principles: a clear structure, which included the structural and infrastructural elements; and
an interpretable and variable space, though of to answer any program it could predictably include.

45
 The elements contribute to a perception of the building as an entity made up of smaller ones,
underlined by a three-dimensional structural and infrastructural grid. A system of numerous columns
defines the positioning of the spatial units and promotes the articulation between spaces. It is an open
spatial structure, as highlighted by the polyvalence of its smaller spatial units. The basic spatial units
are where primary functions are accommodated. Moreover, the potential different functional layouts
of these are extensively thought of in the design stage. These basic spatial units are polyvalent, mean-
ing that, if necessary, they can take over each other’s roles, which is key to absorb change. Between
each unit and the next lays an ambivalent, interpretable space whose dimensions enable it to work
simply as horizontal circulation space or circulation plus extension of the basic units, further expand-
ing their spatial configuration options. The external appearance is directly linked with the inward
spatiality. Volume metamorphoses to space and vice-versa, stimulating an heterarchical, open use.
Validating such concern in the conception is the fact that, since 1972, the insurance company has
undergone great changes, and with it the building’s spatial organization. Nonetheless, regardless those
changes, the built structure remained unchanged, proof of its polyvalence88.

46
11 ALTERITY BEYOND CONTROL THROUGH JEAN NOUVEL’S NEMAUSUS I
Jean Nouvel’s Nemausus I, is an eloquent example on how different levels of constraints may be
overcome at the design, limited by budgets or regulations, or at the user level, limited by the archi-
tectural impositions. Nemausus I is a state-financed social housing built in 1986 in Nimes, France. It
consists of two long buildings which border a tree filled inner court. This central element has become
the public bond to the project, which both separates and unites two distinct buildings.
Since social housing regulations did not allow underground car park, the issue was overcome by
elevating both buildings and digging down the area below. That suffices to accommodate the cars in
a protected open-air area underneath the buildings, while keeping a physical and visual relation with
the inner court and the other building.
The complex was designed to give people the maximum amount of living area, achieving 30-40%
more than usual for equivalent price. Since the apartments are duplexes or triplexes, they also repre-
sent large spatial volumes.
During the design stage, a central option had to be made on whether to allocate resources mostly
in the exterior or in the interior zones. To build more space with the same budget, besides pondered
layout options, efficient construction methods had to be used. Reduced to the simplest level, the
buildings of Nemausus I are rectangular blocks simplified to the extreme and, in this sense, they cannot
be distinguished from other modern social housing answers.
Along a concrete base, at regular intervals, concrete walls are disposed, both separating walls of
the apartments and supporting the above floors. These walls regulate the entire construction, con-
straining the dimensions of the apartments. The gap between the walls is 5m, which is the space
needed to park two cars side by side underneath. With the exception of the elevator shaft, everything
follows this regulation: the width of the apartments; the space between the beams supporting the
walkways; or the screen paneling of the roof. All the collective parts (i.e. stairs, walkways, tree court,
and car park) are joined out the façade, ascribing to the needed economy of internal area use, which
is thereby released to the apartments. The gains are twofold, expressed in bigger savings and bigger
apartments. Walkways are placed in the North, and the private verandas, in the South, adding extra
15m2 to each apartment.
The 5x12m apartments stretch all the way from walkway to private veranda, façade to façade.
Between the two concrete walls, there is a single volume of space. On the lower level, a living room
and kitchen separated by a central services block, and the stairs going up. In each apartment, these
elements can be combined differently, aligned or perpendicular to the concrete walls. There are no
doors, no walls, and no hallway. There is no waste of space, but also there are no privacy filters, as
the kitchen links directly to the walkway. However, due to the shortage of storage space or closed
private garages, inside the apartments most of the veranda spaces end up being occupied by the user

47
to accumulate their stuff. In the mind of the architect, this was to be a relaxing space, a kind of
extension of the living room. Yet, in the mind of the users, this was used as an opportunity to over-
come needs that were not otherwise being fulfilled.
The façade wall separating from the veranda can be completely folded back, expanding its space.
Industrial materials are thoroughly used in the exterior (e.g. façades, stairs, walkways barriers) and
interior (e.g. stairs, toilets), aided by the modulation of the concrete walls. The industrial quality also
extends to the interiors, where the concrete is left in a raw state, and industrial stairs and panels are
used. However, the choice of materials did not please a large portion of the tenants, which in the
meantime have taken the chance to customize it. In some of the flats the 5m bay has been divided
into smaller rooms, but in most of the apartments, the full width of the structural bay is kept, and the
impression is of a very generous, open loft space.
At Nemausus I the design intentions were to build more space for the same price and to offer a
living space in line with a modern lifestyle. The apartments were delivered to the tenants in the raw
materials, brut concrete on the walls, metal staircases, and so forth. This was a design choice, a delib-
erate choice of ‘non-decoration’. The apartments may seem incomplete to the users, but they are
finished. As if a blank canvas, this could be regarded as an invitation for a user free-interpretation of
space. However, the architect’s intention did not entail an open-ended approach, yet it was uniquely
an aesthetical option. Such is confirmed by the building’s internal regulation document forbidding
tenants to make changes, which evidently they do not meet. For instance, no wallpaper or coating is
allowed. Nonetheless, the inhabitants attack with carpets on the walls, paints, wallpapers or adhesive
cornices; they have put false walls, locked-off corridors, disguised the staircases and hung curtains;
they adapted it according with their means and tastes. In the long run, their will is going to prevail.
In the miracle equation of Nemausus I there are serious consequences. The architect won the battle
to build apartments 30 to 40% bigger than usual for the same price, but the tenants, whose rents are
calculated per square meter, are consequently obliged to pay 30 to 40% more. Bigger, ended up
meaning more expensive, and more difficult to rent.
Generally, the blends of regulations and tight budgets reduce design options so much that it be-
comes extremely difficult to deliver differentiated architectural products. That often leads back to the
efficacy of the functionalist models. On the other hand, as when forbidding the decoration of walls
as Jean Nouvel did in Neamausus I, the architect’s temptation to leave a personal imprint, if taken to
extremes may well result in an opposite effect, making justice to the saying ‘forbidding is empowering
desire’.
In a way, the episode recalls the Farnsworth house (1951) famous dispute between the client, Edith
Farnsworth, and the architect, Mies van der Rohe, where, besides the cost of the house and the
heating bills, the client would later complain about the impracticality of a house with no usable walls.

48
Aldo Van Eyck somewhat professed freedom to the user but failed to deliver it when he saw his
Orphane being remodeled for a different use than what had initially been conceived. Regardless the
doctrine, delusionally, most architects simply want things done their way, exerting control and aspir-
ing for it to prevail in time.

49
50
II (Pre)Fabricating
Architecture
COMPLEMENTARY TEXTS

51
52
1 OUTLINE AND CHALLENGES OF THE HOUSING
AND THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR IN EUROPE

1.1 Introduction
The housing problem in the Western World becomes a central issue with the Industrial Revolu-
tion. Mass housing and its related urban planning philosophies are initially a way to provide a concrete
answer to an urban overcrowding caused by the rural exodus of workers to the cities. Meanwhile,
economic collapses and World Wars further stressed the issue. Finally, the very spirit that gave rise
to industrialization was methodologically borrowed to address the housing problem, with a mecha-
nistic approach whose philosophy was imbued of the Fordist and Taylorist ways.
The assembly line, primarily developed by Henry Ford for the automotive industry sector, soon
became a paradigm for all productive sectors. It comprised the synchronized production of standard
components and identical products as ideal means to attain economies of scale. These sort of princi-
ples would significantly influence the design approaches in high housing demand periods, as they
carried the promise of leveraging the bonds of industrial production and construction methods to
yet unseen levels. In architecture, eventually such became an important influence for the Modernist
founding fathers, showcased not only in the development of functional approaches, but also in the
development of formal languages and aesthetical ideas, as well as in the development of production
modes of residential buildings.
In the Europe of the XXth century, periods of peak housing demand followed WWI and WWII.
Design-wise emphasis sprang from two main sources: rationalization of planning and design, and
implementation of industrialization principles to construction. On the one hand, way was made to
rationalize planning and design, as are examples the qualitative methodologies developed by Alexan-
der Klein in the early XXth century and the analysis to social housing in CIAM’s Existenzminimum89.
On the other hand, the focus was directed to the implementation of industrialized methods in order
to increase productivity and gain efficiency, attaining economic advantages. In due course, industri-
alized construction methods would be introduced at the production and construction stages. The
goal is similar in all cases and can generically be put in: saving time on site or, with scaled productions,
saving time on factory; with the accomplished economies put at service of financial savings and/or
of improving the spatial or material quality of the developments, and so forth.
The most extreme combination of rationalization and industrialization principles occurred in state
centralized approaches. In Central and Eastern Europe some of these tout court methods kept going
as late as the early 1990s (coinciding with key political changes), supported by centralizing planning
policies and substantial state funding. These kind of practices no longer have a significant occurrence
in Europe but they can still be found in places such as China90. In this country, alongside some

53
speculative monstrosities, there is a huge demand for low-cost housing from a migrant rural popula-
tion overcrowding the urban centers—the producers of the world’s consumption goods in factories
of global scale. In this respect, the Chinese recent history is evocative of the urban problems occurred
with the industrialization of the Western World in the XIXth and XXth century.
In Western Europe, markets would eventually get more liberalized from the 1960s onwards, co-
inciding with strong social changes. From the time when the post-WWII housing shortage and eco-
nomic growth incentives through housing programs was overcome, the degree of repetition of some
of these solutions became unacceptable for a society increasingly focused on individual freedoms and
choices—with the idea utterly illustrated by a new social order introduced by the May 1968. Conse-
quently, the mass approach was progressively abandoned. The changes conducted through a liberal
philosophy would enable a more organic kind of development, easing the consideration of renova-
tion, replacement and/or addition philosophies. Nonetheless, some liberalization policies, allied to a
deficit in creation, implementation, and/or supervision of regulatory mechanisms, have led to a wide-
spread of speculative real-estate. In many cases such has become economically, socially and environ-
mentally harmful, undermining the built-environment. Signaling such idea are the latter trends in
construction research and practice, which have been showing great concern with sustainability issues,
with considerable attention paid to energy or environment matters.

1.2 Some numbers

A bubble of real-estate overabundance—which ultimately was the visible igniter of a difficult eco-
nomic situation publically bursted in 2008 and whose shockwaves are still being felt—could indicate
that, at least in part, the housing problem in Europe should be currently solved. However, that is not
exactly the case. In 2009, 6.0% of the EU population was suffering from severe housing deprivation,
with worse cases found in Eastern European member states, and in countries such as Romania
achieving nearly 45%. On the other hand, while population growth is slower than in other conti-
nents—and with many cases of critical demographic figures of ageing population—the number of
households has increased much more rapidly than the population in the past few decades91.
A number of factors may contribute to this panorama and different interpretations can be made92.
It should in all cases be reminded that the housing problem is much more than an architectural or
construction problem, having deep social implications. Considering the ratio dwellings/population,
it is clear that the housing market in new constructions in Europe is saturated. Exceptions stand in
Eastern European countries, where some new building opportunities are still waiting to be found,
which can partly be explained by a latter liberalization due to the historical circumstances. As a con-
sequence, the market is currently dominated by refurbishment and maintenance. To some extent this

54
can be explained by a market reaction to the declining in new building, and prospects are for this
tendency to be kept in the future.
The idea of decline is also confirmed by the predominance of certain types of houses over others:
in 2009, 41.7% of the EU population lived in flats, 34.3% in detached houses and 23.0% in semi-
detached houses93. Comparing overall numbers, this reveals a slightly bigger propensity for European
citizens to live in cities than, for instance, in the US (around 80% in detached or mobile-homes,
according to 2000 census figures) or Japan (56.5% in detached houses, according to 2003 figures).
Socially and culturally these figures should not be disregarded and indicate that the historical Europe
may be more appealing to an urban lifestyle. This can also disclose a certain standstill, to which an
atomized fabric of construction companies does not bring a positive contribution to the stand94.

1.3 The construction sector

The enormous range of systems and products which characterizes European construction indus-
try has many reasons. One of the strongest is linked to a solid local anchoring of the construction
industry to national contexts, and the structural traditions of the building crafts of the local construc-
tion industries95. The ‘idea of Europe’ works here only in the sense of defining a common market, in
which, simplistically, the construction industry is merely a sort of embryo of project, a business sort
of project. This is also a reflex of the idiosyncrasies and convulsions of the grand European project
whose basis, regardless its remarkable virtues, has first been laid ideal and only later real, triggering
convulsions and questionings of the very project. Some of these virtues are in setting clear and am-
bitious milestones, which at least have the merit of making affairs moving. Indeed, main production
mechanisms have been questioned and challenged, as it is the case at the highest level with Europe
2020 strategy and its derivative documents such as Directive 2009/28/EC96. These are embedded of a
flagship initiative spirit for a shift towards a resource-efficient, low-carbon European economy to
achieve sustainable growth and therefore impelling to practices and methodological shifts affecting
all sectors, and evidently also the construction sector. However, solid answers to these challenges
seem yet to come and the construction sector is typically slow to adjust97.
The value of this sector is nonetheless quite relevant. According to Eurostat figures published in
2013, around 10% of the European GDP was construction-induced, representing 7% of all employ-
ment and about 30% of industrial employment. It adds that the majority of the construction compa-
nies are SMEs, of which only 3% have more than 20 employees98. Although eventually with ad-
vantages in a sort of neighborhood-like proximity, this sort of atomized company profile, allied to an
often doubtful quality-delivery, undermines response capacity to greater challenges, as those implic-
itly involved in prefabrication. With automation, industrial production of construction components

55
does not necessarily imply a great number of employees, nonetheless it may require a great deal of
investment which may not be accessible to the bulk of SMEs. It adds the sovereign debt crises, allied
to an uncertainty in the Eurozone, which are likely to keep constraining construction investment in
many Western European markets for the years to come99. The benefits of economies of scale associ-
ated with mass produced constructions are already quite well established in other economic regions,
as it is the case of Japan, whose overall construction sector represents almost 13% of GDP, and in
the US, with a compared 7.9%. Overall, the construction industry in Europe suffers from many
weaknesses, which can be generally put in fragmented responsibilities, lack of concern on the final
consumer (speculative), competition mostly price-oriented, suffering still of unfit-regulation, still high
labor intensive, high resource consumptive, and cause of major local environmental effects.
Attempts to mass produce construction exist already for a quite long time. However, the current
production methods can still primarily be characterized has of a prevalence of crafted one-of-a-kind
sort of buildings, and/or of following a modernist tradition of typological repetition. It adds a ten-
dency in using minimum batch size100 production principles, remarkably noticeable, for instance, in
the extreme example of the brick by brick layout in building masonry walls enrooted in many southern
European countries constructive cultures. Exceptions do exist, but a true paradigm shift requires still
plenty of work in some core issues. The need for such shift has become inextricably visible in coun-
tries such as Spain or Portugal, whose economic dependence on the construction sector for the over-
all GDP, allied with a stagnancy or cut of investment in the sector, turned the economic development
into a very difficult equation—a theme that has been making the headlines the past few years. Addi-
tionally, despite the quality work being developed, many businesses in the construction field still lack
a true innovative insight.

1.4 Prefab innovation and business as usual in the Portuguese case

The case of prefab houses companies operating in countries such as Portugal is clear in terms of
the lack of an innovative insight. It is elucidative on a sort of installed business as usual culture, where
most of the operating companies just mimic or directly import building methods and often sell them
as state-of-the art constructive achievements. Based on information accessible online from the com-
panies’ websites, from an analyzed universe of 98 companies operating in Portugal in this sub-sector
in 2013, only 56 had a minimum of available data from where to drive some possible conclusions.
From the 56, only about half seemed to have R&D concerns (Figure 2. Portuguese prefab houses
companies’ profile. and the remaining were apparently only seller, or intermediates of imported sys-
tems (Figure 2c, organization: seller ‘s’).

56
Figure 2. Portuguese prefab houses companies’ profile.

It is among the R&D half that those with architectural design concerns can be found (Figure 2a:
design & construction). The companies with stronger architectural design concerns also seem to be more
flexible to adjust their constructive systems to the client’s needs, reflected on the achievable level of
product customization (Figure 2b, customization: high). In terms of technology, the majority uses
wood construction (Figure 2d, main structure: wood), which is linked to the seller figures (Figure 2c,
organization: seller ‘s’), since most of the non-R&D firms sell imported wood systems. Technologically
it is of notice a non-existent percentage of exclusive concrete based prefab in this research. Prefab
based companies do exist in the Portuguese pool, but they were discarded given a preliminary verifi-
cation of their relative secondary role in the overall panorama. The research was hence more focused
in lightweight construction in wood or steel based structures.
As to the kind of final assembly, figures are more diversified, and generally a bondage can be made
between companies with stronger design and customization concerns, as these are more prone to
offer differentiated final assembly methods. As one could expect, the more flexible a design system is,
the smaller is likely to be the minimum batch size used by a company (Figure 2e, final assembly); and
the break-even between a minimum batch size and industrialized construction methods is in a very
thin threshold, as with smaller batches more human labor can be implied, reducing potential overall
gains. Nonetheless, it is unclear from such an analysis any conclusions on a definitive relation of these
principles with commercial success. This is further emphasized by the lack correlation of any of the
research insights with national or overseas company’s operations (Figure 2f, internationalization).
From these figures of the Portuguese case, given a number of factors such as the country’s small
size and a late industrialization when compared with many other European countries, it is not possible

57
to establish a broader parallelism towards other realities. Nonetheless, although with its own idiosyn-
crasies, there are reasons to believe that some of the behaviors observed in the Portuguese case are
not exclusive of this country alone. For instance, for several motives and in many cases throughout
Europe, the house prefabrication industry has become associated with low quality or architecturally
undemanding reputation. There are historical reasons for that fact, but there are also reasons related
with a vast amount of companies which mostly have constructive concerns, and/or are simply selling
constructive systems and their related building services, and/or have do not have integrated design
or other R&D concerns. Nonetheless, there are remarkably positive examples, found mostly in
Northern European construction cultures, which set optimistic prospects on a beneficial, more mas-
sified use of prefab related methods in some circumstances.

1.5 Thinking of a future possible

As the world population continues to grow, demanding for new buildings or renovation of exist-
ing ones is responsible for a great deal of use of available resources, particularly in what concerns to
our energy consumption. There is a strong consensus that this issue as to be tackled, reflected in
several institutional documents produced, as is for instance the case of Agenda 21 or the Urban Strategy
2004101. The ways to do it, however, are not consensual. Sustainable practices in construction include
not only environmental impact of buildings during their lifecycle, but economic, social, and cultural
considerations as well. Some aspects of sustainability, namely economic and environmental are al-
ready quite well underway, while other, namely the social field, are harder to grasp.
Prefabrication does not necessarily mean sustainable building, nor does sustainable building imply
the use of prefabrication. However, the promise of a greater efficiency (economic, or other) that
appears to steam from it, is seemingly advantageous. Besides visible benefits regarding labor condi-
tions, its ability to meet environmental and especially social goals is, as in other areas of study, difficult
to consider. Given our positivist inheritance, accountability is an issue that is difficult to contour. Yet,
while a reasonable accounting model does not come around, alternatives must be put in sight so that
discussion can be increasingly informed. This gains even more relevance as it is acknowledging that
socio‐cultural aspects are crucial and often impose choices that contradict the better environmental
and economical solution102.
The dawn of the XXIth century has been witnessing a quantity and quality boost in the field of
prefabrication. The seemingly less favorable economic circumstances that are being verified make con-
struction speed and efficiency even more necessary. In some cases, this can be improved by optimizing
and improving traditional methods, for instance via the increasing integration of processes via digital
aided methods, in others only prefabrication can really offer more competitive ways103. Additionally,

58
requirements are increasingly demanding in what concerns ‘making green’, not only regulation wise, but
also in the very social acceptability worldwide. The potentially greater control achieved by prefabrication
methods in comparison to traditional construction methods, can too be an advantage in an environ-
mental perspective. The material advantages are well known, as, in theory, prefab construction allows a
better material optimization, minimizing waste, and reducing the carbon footprint. Besides, its charac-
teristics potentially enhance the possibilities of quality control and deconstruction for eventual lifecycle-
end reduction, reuse or recycling. This lifecycle can be of the entire building or of some of its compo-
nents—in the latter case with the possibility of extending building’s useful life through maintenance.
Additionally, the building’s life can be prolonged by allowing change and extension, of the built form
and of its components, by easing the tasks of disassembly and reuse. Some of these possibilities are far
from being specific of prefab, but if set on an adequate study of relation between constructive compo-
nents, prefabrication can enhance environmental and economic viability of the construction: the design
leading to a prefab construction simply has to be constructively accurate, as tolerances are minimal in
relation to ordinary, less industrialized construction methods.
Despite globalization, there are yet social and cultural aspects of a regional order, that constrain
the prevailing building culture of each place. In fast-moving, fast-changing societies, housing is, has
it has been, in a permanent crisis, which is currently typically visible in true quality and diversity
deficits. Such state of permanent crisis is increased by the globalization challenges which our con-
temporary societies face, with expression in core aspects deeply affecting dwelling, such as employ-
ment or family structures. In an interview to the Portuguese Negócios newspaper published in June 27,
2014, Wolfgang Schäulble, the German Minister of Finances, affirmed: “The globalized economy is chang-
ing at an astonishing speed, the technological advances are killing numerous jobs each year. If we want to fight unem-
ployment in the XXIst century, we have to make structural reforms – and that is as much truth for Europe, as for all
the other industrialized countries in the world. If you read any report of IMF or OECD, you will see the same exigency
made, for instance, to Australia which is now on the presidency of G20. Solid public finances and a continuous
structural reform process are two necessary pre-conditions to a sustainable growth”. To call for an effective imple-
mentation of industrialized methods in construction practices may in this sense be paradoxical, as
unemployment can be aggravated, raising other social issues. On the other hand, there is nothing new
about it, as such type of processes of adjustment have been occurring since humanity left the tree
branches. The center of the discussion here is the quality and sustainability of our built environment,
of which a permanent monitoring of reforms also in the construction sector may too be key.
There is no use to implement top-down reforms without bottom-up innovation. With exception
for some notable authorship works, although many still predominantly focused on stylistic issues, the
construction landscape reveals reduced innovation levels. The vision conveyed by some initiatives
such as Solar Decathlon104, despite being highly relevant from the technological R&D insight, end up

59
being not so useful from the point of view of a common architectural practice, since they tend to
neglect fundamental social aspects, putting their greater focus in technological achievements. Archi-
tectural practice, on the other hand, seems often slow to adjust to the technological times. For in-
stance, producing green buildings requires additional expertise to the plenty already existing, and some-
times practice is simply not yet ready to deal with them. But this is also a problem in construction
companies. Eco-technology should not overlook history and what it offers for a balanced dialogue
towards the construction and preservation of the (built-)environment. Lessons such as the pioneering
and impermanence in the US, lessons on tradition looking up to the future such as in Japan, on the
power of society such as in Scandinavia, on technological innovation such as in Germany, or on
permanent research such as in the UK, should be attentively observed. The tendencies of eco-tech
innovation can create specific ways to think and materialize architecture, by preserving the quality of
the environment not only through its physical component, but also through its social, symbolic and
ideological value, not by groundless idealism, techno-romanticism, political naiveté, or, the worse
kind, sole commercial purposes through hollow ‘green’ marketing as a strategy as any other to move
business ahead, throwing (green) sand to people’s eyes.
In the Portuguese context with little tradition in this field, prefab housing projects that embed an
efficient use of natural resources are still quite few. The same scarceness is verified at the level of
requirement in architectural competitions, in which, besides energy efficiency, seldom more demand-
ing items, such as environmental performance assessment, are asked. It is our belief that the way for
the future of the construction sector and economy as a whole has no way but to stand on the shoul-
ders of high environmental demands. But this is also an implicit critic to the academia’s production
of architects, whose focus in many cases seems a revival of the early XXth century discussion of Beaux
Arts approach versus the disruptive Modernist way. Formalism, aesthetics, preconceived ideas pro-
pelled by media consumption of often circularly moving ideas, image preceding problem tackling, or
problems posed through beautiful but meaningless imagery paraphernalia, are just some of the innu-
merous manifestations of a state of crisis which has reached the architectural profession, and recalls
the reluctance to change from the stylistic approaches that was criticized by our Modernist grandfa-
thers. As Juhani Pallasma wrote in the end of his article in 1991, revitalizing architecture “implies a
paradoxical task for architecture to become more primitive and more refined at the same time (…); (it) also implies a
view of building more as a process than a (end) product and it suggests a new awareness of time (…); it also seems that
the architect’s role between the polarities of craft and art has to be redefined. The current philosophical testing of the
limits of architecture will be replaced by authentic experimentation with new techniques (…) and new concepts of living.
After decades of affluence and abundance, architecture is likely to return to the aesthetics of necessity in which (...) utility
and beauty are again united. An ecological lifestyle brings forth the ethical stance, the aesthetics of noble poverty as well
as the notion of responsibility in all its philosophical complexity”105.

60
2 PREFABRICATION OF HOUSES:
A HISTORICAL AND SOCIO-CULTURAL SURVEY

2.1 Context and challenges of house prefabrication in Europe

The construction sector is currently still one of the most traditional and least innovative industries.
In Portugal, the construction of residential buildings can often present average construction periods
superior to two years, revealing a backwardness and craftiness of this activity. However, the case is
not exclusive of this country alone. In the core of this problem are often the use of constructive
systems with large execution times and the use of materials whose application implies too much man
labor time. Labor-cost is a major component of the overall construction-cost. Additionally, there are
often difficulties in finding skilled workers to execute more specific tasks. Therefore, any methodol-
ogy that may generate the reduction of construction-time will be a seductive variable as long as it
does not increase the total construction-cost and allows equal or better construction-quality. Further-
more, for this construction-quality to be achieved, sustainability factors must necessarily be regarded,
since they imply costs—economical, environmental and social—not only upstream the construction,
but also downstream throughout the lifecycle of the buildings—e.g. use, maintenance, energy.
As history shows, prefabrication is not a miraculous solution. The successful business achieve-
ments in this field rarely bond with what may be considered an architectural success. For prefabrica-
tion to work, things need to be technologically fine-tuned, and that requires a strong engagement for
multiple actors in the construction scene—architects, builders, promoters, and so forth—as well as
a wide social acceptance of the process. The latter is condition for trust in the design and, foremost,
in the constructive solutions, as without these, the cultural, legal or financial obstacles that may be
faced will hardly be overcome. Moreover, none of this occurs overnight.
It is impossible to express a single (hi)story on the historical evolution of prefab in Europe (or
anywhere else for that matter). Firstly, because prefab approaches imply an extraordinary mix of
different subjects—these can be, on one extreme, industrial efficiency related issues or, on the other
end, artistic concerns. Furthermore, there are remarkable regional differences, propelled not only by
natural conditions such as climate or abundance of certain resources, but also political, social or cul-
tural reasons and particular historical contexts which made things evolve differently in different re-
gions, and these also ultimately translate into different constructive cultures.
To illustrate the European state of the art scenario in this matter, we will be further detailing the
Nordic countries, The Netherlands, Germany and UK cases. The very division into countries or
particular regions may be considered fairly anachronistic, and is certainly debatable. Indeed, in a global
context, that sort of categorization may not make much sense, as processes are interdependent and

61
not limited to the idea of a country or a somewhat bounded region. In any case, because of non-
neglectable practical issues, such sort of division is, for better or worse, still in most cases the best
there is to work with. These practical issues can, for instance, be the information availability—e.g.
statistical data—but can also be related with an enduring resilience of regional characteristics, despite
unavoidable global processes of homogenization.
These cases were chosen for diverse reasons. The Nordic countries, by an enrooted social ac-
ceptance of prefab, translated in a wide recognizance of a high evolution of its state of the art in
prefab. The Netherlands, mostly by its historical active role as a society that has always dealt with a
need of having a properly planned territory, with outcomes in innovative philosophies of housing
and building. Germany, by its historical role, both political and architectural, in the formalization of
prefabrication methods and systems’ conception, as well as by its acknowledged benchmark position-
ing in terms of technological development in several sectors. Finally, the UK, by a long prefab tradi-
tion and the scale of after-war emergency efforts.
The above reasons are inevitably oversimplifications nonetheless. Yet they stand for their sugges-
tivity power and are proven witnesses of the variety of approaches that can be involved. Some other
cases were consciously left behind. Such occurred not because they would not fit, but because they
are evocative of a different group of subjects which are either already implicitly referred in some parts
of this work, or are not central to the scope of the discussion of prefab single-family houses. Indeed,
it is impossible to ignore the role of places such as France or the former Soviet Union have or had in
the formulation of the current status of house prefabrication, not only in Europe, but worldwide. As
a corpus, these two will only be shortly referred in the following paragraphs.

2.1.1 A BRIEF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE FRENCH CASE

From the French case, we can highlight seminal figures not only of prefab business history, but
of architectural history as a whole. It is unquestionable the role the French had in the development
of concrete technologies in its early stages. The French businessman Edmond Coignet was the first
to use prefabricated concrete elements in the construction of the Biarritz Casino (1891)106. François
Henebique, a businessman and constructor, was a pioneer in reinforced concrete modular units. In
early XXth century he patented the Béton Armé system, which became a huge commercial success,
and would dominate the world market. Directly and indirectly, he left a legacy of over 35 000 build-
ings and structures, including a more famous development of gatekeepers lodges for the French na-
tional railways (1896)107.
Among the seminal architectural figures Le Corbusier stands out, namely from his writings, but
also for the development of housing projects. Another relevant figure is Jean Prouvé, as he brought
a fresh insight on the relations between architecture, design, engineering and industry. Prouvé also

62
designed several prefabricated detached houses such as the Meudon Houses (1950-52) for the Parisian
suburbs, or the Maison Tropicale (1949-51)108. In architectural thinking, the 1983 exhibition Architecture
et Industrie: Passé et Avenir d'un Mariage de Raison in the Centre Georges Pompidou has endured as a refer-
ence109. The Centre Georges Pompidou building (1967-1977), by the non-Frenchmen Renzo Piano and
Richard Rogers, is in itself a famous reference image of a dialogue between architecture and industri-
alized elements, in its archetypical hi-tech styling.

2.1.2 A BRIEF ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE SOVIET UNION CASE

As for the former Soviet Union, iconically the approach has focused in prefab concrete systems,
implemented to multi-story mass housing construction—the Khrushchyovka’s 110 , as they became
known. The centralization of political power eased the implementation of housing with coordinated
component construction. The Soviets begun developing standardized systems in the 1930’s, when
German technical teams brought their influence with some industrialization techniques for construc-
tion. Generically, the goal was to have as few building types as possible and to compile a catalogue
of their parts, as if a giant Lego system, to efficiently deploy in any area of their vast territory. The
catalogue could be used in a cook-book fashion, relegating design to interchanging ingredients—a
cook-book both of typologies and of building components.
Although widely implemented and interesting in aspects such as modular coordination, the Khrush-
chyovka’s (1947-1961), and its later variants, fell on social disgrace by their frequent and typical con-
structive pathologies, becoming an authentic social paradigm of low-quality prefab111. The Micro-
rayon112, the Soviet term for the state-planned, state-funded, residential districts, marked and still
marks a whole urban landscape in former Soviet Union countries—in times they peaked as part of
the living environment of more than 80% of the Russian population. These are characterized by
their austere appearance, ascribed to the characteristics of the Khrushchyovka’s systems, with large,
greyish prefabricated concrete elements and their characteristic visible joints. These features,
alongside their pathologies, became important reasons for this type of technology to be stigmatized.
Such occurred in the former Soviet Union countries and elsewhere where similar technologies were
used, as was the case in Portugal in the 1970s with the so-called P3 system for schools
construction, which made a wide-spread use of concrete paneling and asbestos roofing.

63
2.2 Prefabrication of houses in the Nordic Countries

2.2.1 CONSTRUCTIVE ROOTS

Three main stages define prefabrication history in the Nordic countries: the pioneer age following
the industrial revolution, the mass-production age following war and post-war housing crisis, and the
customization and design age following implementation of numerical technologies and the maturity
in social acceptance of prefabrication systems. Notwithstanding, prefabrication history in these coun-
tries is deeply enrooted in age-old construction practices that have evolved throughout the centuries.
As result, the ideological debate on the virtues of prefab, which is verified in other locations, seems
to have no relevance in this region. There is a culture where timber frame structures, brickwork or
other technologies are valid, each with its own context, regardless of being in a low-design or high-design
building context. Additionally, self-construction is also a common practice, emerging from an age-
old tradition of cabins and summerhouses construction. Therefore, the lightweight structural meth-
ods, which are so common in low-rise prefab in these countries, are commonly known and accepted
among the public in general.
Given the large area of forest, use of wood has always been more predominant than it is in most
other places. In Finland, the earliest known vernacular form of shelter, the kota, is a timber based
construction dating back from the IXth century. It consisted of posts leaning inward to form a cone
covered with animal skins. The form would evolve to a rectangular shape by the Xth century, a fact
attributed to Russian influences, but similar solutions can be found in many other locations. For
instance, in Southern Europe, the Greek timber megaron type, which constituted the base of the Doric
temples, was in use around 2 500 years ago, when the Mediterranean area was more abundantly for-
ested. With time, the rectangular cabin became more sophisticated, as Swedish and German tech-
niques were imported to Finland in the XIIth century. The increasingly improved constructive
knowledge would eventually spread across the entire region113.
These medieval wood houses were built over stone bases, and often insulated with moss and earth
underneath. The dimensions were determined by the logs, cut in the nearby forests and dried for up
to two years before use. These could also be disassembled and rebuilt elsewhere. Eventually, such log
practice would refine in time. During the Enlightenment, double floors were introduced, and insula-
tion, roofing or rotten prevention materials and techniques evolved: birch bark would be replaced by
sawed planks, glass windows introduced, more efficient fireplaces developed, insulation and water-
tightening methods added or improved, and so on. Many of these cabin dwellings evolved into build-
ing complexes for farming societies. In Finland, the typical wooden town arose out of a blend of
urban and agrarian communities, with crafts, trading, livestock and farming closely interacting. These

64
would frequently follow a classical grid plan, with the single and double story houses lined along a
street with wood fences, and forming a yard complex114.
Stylistically, a neo-classical influence would have a deep impact in the Nordic Countries through-
out the XIXth century. In Finland, this was most noticeable through the predominantly public work
of C. L. Engel, with an admirable grasp of timber construction. Besides, Engel’s ideas were broadly
published, contributing for a better knowledge of his works and methods. In Sweden, Fredrik Blom,
born in 1781, had begun his career as a carpenter (it would be only later in his life that he would begin
studying in the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, where some years after he was made professor in 1817).
Blom became a pioneer in prefabrication, devising a system of walls that could be assembled, disas-
sembled and moved elsewhere as required. However, popularity came mostly because of the pre-
sented solidity, and the smooth, classical-style buildings it delivered. Overall, these features would
attract attention all over Europe by 1840.
Blom’s houses were handcrafted, but shortly the idea was mechanized by an emerging sawmilling
industry. The Swedes developed an ingeniously effective roof truss and post and beam construction,
which allowed a bigger size and greater flexibility, with larger window openings and a cavity for saw-
dust insulation. By publishing Agricultural Buildings (1891), Alfred Sjöström’s made these techniques
available to a wider public. With the invention of the frame saw, it was also possible to reproduce
complex ornamental motives, which came with the popular pattern books. Overall, these occurrences
contributed to install a classicist flavor that spanned from the highly widespread Neo-Classical in the
XIXth century, to the Art Deco in the early XXth century.

2.2.2 INSTALLATION OF A NEW PARADIGM THROUGH THE XXTH CENTURY WARS

The XXth century conflicts catalyzed a change in the construction business. To the unfolding
technological improvements and a required greater efficiency in the construction processes, it added
a sophistication of the business and marketing strategies. Since it took over the vernacular log con-
struction in the early XXth century, the American balloon frame, and related constructive methods, has
been widely used for low-rise housing. In Finland, balloon frame was officially introduced in 1909,
through the architectural periodical Arkkitehti [The Architect]. The system brought about obvious ad-
vantages, with its standardized sections easing large-scale production115. After 1917, post-WWI hous-
ing shortage increased demand for prefabrication, triggering industry to standardize and mechanize
in Norway and Sweden. By this epoch, building industry became the main driver in the development
of mass production methods (and of the economy) in the Nordic countries.
As it happened in the USA, the timber-frame industry would soon, and throughout the XIXth cen-
tury, be marketing their houses via catalogues and pattern books. In the 1920s, the City of Stockholm
released typified house plans and pre-cut timber to encourage working class families to build their

65
own houses in the suburbs116. By the end of the 1930s, manufacturers of catalogue houses were
abundant. Sawmills from densely forested regions provided the wood to produce thousands of build-
ings per year, the majority houses and villas, but also other kinds117.
The WWI accelerated the shift from traditional construction to framed structures, with paneling
techniques becoming a predominant construction method in the 1920s. Swedish industry would assist
war-famished Finland, contributing for a great technological development. The Swedish gift houses,
as they were known, played a major role at this period118, with over two thousand wooden houses
built in Sweden, with designs made in Finland, calling in favor of the Swedes industry while valuing
the Finnish designing skills119. Among these, self-building single-family houses were the most popu-
lar120. However, it was not until the end of WWII, when the housing demand was the greatest it had
ever been, that prefabrication saw a great upswing. It has been estimated that in post-WWII, nearly
70 companies were producing more than 50% of housing in Scandinavia. In 1947, 17 500 prefabri-
cated houses were produced in Sweden alone121.
Meanwhile, in the interim period, while throughout Europe the Modernism was being experienced
in materials such as concrete, glass and steel, in places such as Finland it was mostly wood-based,
giving it a more warmth flavor. The abundant forests have heavily influenced single-family house
technologies, tending to promote a continuity of the traditional house both in material and in style,
instead of opening up to a Modernist language. A step forward came when Alvar Aalto designed his
AA-system in 1937, commissioned by the company Ahlström Oy. Influenced by a fruitful earlier incur-
sion in the MIT, Aalto would develop it until 1940122. The system would follow its prefabrication
intents, and would reveal a new paradigm of mass production with a variability twist123. As well as
other prefabricated systems, the AA-system would be tested during WWII124.
The war caused material and housing shortages. Given the availability and constructive tradition,
wood was a logical choice for the typified houses and war barracks. Anticipating the postwar recon-
struction, the Finnish Association of Architects employed many prominent architects to design type-
planned houses. With the postwar demand, the way was open to implement these designs. Mean-
while, the single-family house had become a product, as the individually commissioned design for a
specific location gave place to a generalized commodity, the result of a production and marketing
mechanism where design authorship is anonymous or simply irrelevant. Notwithstanding the archi-
tectural efforts, as a business spirit prevailed, many of implemented type-planned houses lacked the
attention to detail and the architectural qualities that Aalto and others had earlier meritoriously de-
veloped125.

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2.2.3 ARCHITECTURAL EXPERIMENTATION AFTER WWII
As expressed by Rasmus Wærn, “part of the reason why prefabricated building developed under the aegis of
single-family housing was strong union opposition to the transfer of jobs from the construction industry to manufacturing,
restricting such a shift to projects of smaller scale (…) Added to this, short production runs encouraged experimenta-
tion”126. The period of the 1940s and 1950s revived curiosity in prefabrication, with new technical
solutions tested by individual architects. As prefab became a broader concept—other than just precut
wood—and modular principles arouse, new designs were also being made. Attention had also been
turning to the use of concrete and brick for multi-dwelling housing. Nonetheless, new town devel-
opments and holiday houses kept having an expressive demand, and many famous architectural de-
signs can be found among the summer villas. Mies van der Rohe’s steel and glass influence, the
modernist language, and an interest in Japanese spatial and material concepts, with open areas and a
delicate use of materials (namely wood), would add as important stimuli to a new, experimenting
generation127. Following Aalto’s earlier spirit in AA-system, in 1947 the Swede architect Sven Markelius
would call for mass production of houses, not based on standardized houses, but on standardized
parts to allow greater variability and design choice128.
The 1960s introduced a new social awareness. The beliefs in a society founded in equalitarian
principles were a further motive to deepen the research in prefabrication solutions. Almost every
progressive Nordic architect developed prefabrication schemes. However, most of these remained
prototypes. Some of the best examples in Finnish architecture can be found amongst Kristian Gul-
lichsen, Kirmo Mikkola or Juhani Pallasma. These have made some joint works, of which Moduli 225
house—by Gullichsen and Pallasma (1969-1971)—stands out for the use of prefabrication principles.
Based on a 225×225cm module, it is an industrially produced prefabricated summerhouse, built in
timber, steel and glass. With its precision of detail and structure, carefully studied proportions, mini-
mal gesture and modular grid attributes, it denotes influence by the Japanese house design, the teach-
ings of the mentor Aalto, as well as Mies’ openness and lightness. Nonetheless, Moduli 225 would
prove unpopular. Buyers would normally prefer the widely publicized houses sold through the mar-
keting machines of the construction business129.
One of the exceptions extending beyond a prototypical stage was the Futuro House, designed by
Matti Suuronen in 1968. In a way, its relative success—around 100 build units—is quite surprising,
given its radical UFO-like shape, way out of the aesthetical characteristics of the most commonly
sold prefabs. The house was initially designed as a ski-cabin or holiday home. It reflects the confi-
dence of the 1960s, before the oil crisis of the 1970s, when there was an optimistic attitude both in
terms of social engagement and in that technology could solve all problems for the human race. It
carried the ideal of the space-age era positivity and a vision of a future where everybody would have
more leisure time to spend on holidays. The building was delivered completely furnished, and could

67
accommodate eight people. There were ambitious plans to mass-produce it, which envisioned a new
concept of mobile living. It was entirely constructed out of reinforced plastic, which made it so light-
weight it could be easily transportable by helicopter. Such enabled it to be utterly mobile, adapted to
the nomadic lifestyle of the space-age modern man. However, the 1973 oil crisis spoiled the plans, as
plastic prices rose, taking production costs to unbearable levels. As a result, the 100 houses that were
built felt short on the initial mass-production prospects. Nonetheless, such may be considered a great
achievement for a house with such an uncommon shape, and with obvious limitations in some com-
monly valued specs—e.g. it had little potential of adaptability to client’s needs. The house is a true
creation of a new age, and the result of an era in which architecture becomes increasingly understood
as if an ordinary consumer product130.
In Denmark, a country that also saw a great prefab development in the 1960s, Jørn Utzon de-
signed Espansiva131, and Arne Jacobsen designed Kubeflex and Kvadraflex132. We see Utzon in a remark-
able photo sitting on the floor combining several models of his Espansiva system. The combinatorial
possibilities and the playful attitude would be linked to his Additive Architecture principles, where it
stands out Utzon’s affinity by industrialized methods, adaptation, or variation according to principles
derived from the observation of nature, of other cultures, of history: the world. As to Jacobsen, the
housing manufacturer Høm Houses had hired him in 1969 to design a holiday home, which resulted
in the concept-house Kubeflex, which is built out of prefab cubic modules of 3.36×3.36m, with 10m2
each. These modules may have different kinds of walls and with numerous layout configurations.
Conceptually, it included the possibility for houses to be altered or expanded according to the owner’s
needs or wishes. First presented in the Archibo house fair near Copenhagen in 1970, it would turn out
unpopular by its radical appearance and never went into production. Instead, Jacobsen took the pro-
totype and placed it in the seaside to use it has his family holiday house. Kvadraflex, a sister-concept
of Kubeflex, was also limited to a single floor, and also had a square base, but of 4.08m instead of
3.36m. Different materials could be used, and its modular, single-floor logic made use of a hipped
roofs of four intersecting sides. A few prototypes were built in Ishøj, having in account void spaces
and community areas. More recently, the Danish company Vipp, famous for their metal bins which
they make since 1939, produced a design morphologically inspired in Jacobsen’s, the Vipp Shelter.
Built on the Nordic lineage of summer and weekend escape huts, the design is 55m2 plus an attic,
built on a structural steel frame with a façade of glass and galvanized painted steel. Yet, unlike
Jacobsen’s, it is not possible to add extra elements.
Design based in modular dimensional principles was also being experimented. In Sweden, in 1955,
Ralph Erskine designed and built a circular cottage, consisting of sixteen prefabricated sections. The
building was thought of to be subsequently produced in a large scale, but such never occurred133.

68
Regardless of Erskine’s and some other cases, in Sweden in this period most experiments were re-
stricted to state initiatives. Social politics affecting housing was enhanced by the so-called Miljonpro-
grammet, aiming at 1 million apartments in a 10-year period. From the 1960s onwards rational methods
of construction became a central matter in housing policy134.
Despite the architectural experiments and the state programs, the abundant prefab house produc-
tion of late 1960s, and throughout the 1970s, was dominated by detached catalogue homes. The design
efforts towards quality and mass-customization were distorted as the built landscape turned visually
chaotic, and with individual house forms presenting merely apparent variability. Business took over
the production of prefab house space135.

2.2.4 MARKET AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE PAST DECADES

In the 1950s and 1960s sawmilling industry started to diversify their business into the production
of components such as wall panels or roof trusses. It would not take long until activities became
specialized: the factory production itself; marketing operations promoting houses in brochures and
advertisements, including pattern books; and a network of local builders to assemble the houses in-
situ. With some nuances, currently the methods in use are essentially the same, having become the
typical mode of house provision in the mainstream house business136.
The 1940s wartime driven demand, and the 1960s burst in prefabrication offer, nearly eliminated
the architect from the design process. Housing shortages in the 70s and 80s were accommodated
with concrete and masonry apartment blocks. Nonetheless, in the 1980s an amazing 85% of private
homes were made using prefabrication methods of some sort137. In today’s scenario, prefabricated
housing industry dominates housing and results are not brilliant. Nonetheless, there are different
housing market realities among the Nordic Countries. As it also occurs in most other European
countries, the last few years have been witnessing a slowdown in house construction, which is more
acute in multi-dwelling housing than in other house forms. The market numbers also show that in
Nordic countries there is a rising tendency for a higher preference for living in single-family houses138.
As elsewhere worldwide, although new construction technologies have been developed, many
constructive issues are still a major source of debate: acoustical insulation, fire safety, low thermal
mass, and so forth. Currently there are improved acoustical insulation and effective fire safety meth-
ods for lightweight wood or steel structures. However, generally modern acoustic and fire codes still
make it harder to build than in concrete. In Finland and Denmark, regulation only allows a single
story for public buildings built with wood structure, despite wood construction easily allowing four
or five floors, and new laminated technologies and steel truss systems offering numerous structural
possibilities. In Finland, building codes only started allowing residential wood-based buildings to have
over two stories since 1998, and only with expensive sprinkler systems139. Additionally, low building

69
mass in lightweight constructions is a characteristic with effects in the overall thermal insulation phi-
losophy, and with negative effects in the user perception of the building’s vibration if not properly
mitigated. There are available technological ways to overcome these issues, and these are highly scru-
tinized both legally and through the very market competition, which occurs more and more at a global
scale through common directives, norms, certification mechanisms, and so forth. Additionally, infor-
mation is widely available and a myriad of products are available in the global market—for instance,
not every European country produces OSB panels, although these are available everywhere in Eu-
rope. All the same, in lightweight constructions, the overall setting is more demanding than in other
kinds of construction, requiring more of a holistic insight. This means that every step of the process
has to be carefully pondered in the design stage, and a quality control in manufacturing and assem-
bling must be thoroughly implemented, otherwise with greater risk of constructive flaws, with likely
negative effects not only in market perception, but also in insurance fees, financing prospects, and so
forth.
A major example is the problem of the thermal insulation in wall systems while preventing water
vapor to be trapped, causing unwanted pathologies. Many of the frame systems have been using
mineral insulation products that have been developed in the 1960s. These succeeded in thermal per-
formance, but cause condensation problems due to temperature differences if the walls’ cavities are
not properly ventilated. To attempt to tackle the problem, plastic moisture barriers were introduced,
but this has also met difficulties, since if any part is pierced during construction, then the water vapor
will collect at that point, causing localized moisture and rotting. The older systems allowed natural
breathability, but poor thermal performance. There have been recent advancements in new insulation
materials made of sawdust, flax, hemp, paper or wool, which are designed to allow moisture to pen-
etrate in harmony with wood and allow breathing without deterioration, and theoretically thereby
eliminating the need for venting and a plastic layer. Additionally, now there are also breathable plastic
layers, which pretty much solve the problem in cases where external coating does not require support
through mechanical elements perforating the plastic in exposed circumstances.
Regardless the improvements, and information and product availability, current prefab technolo-
gies used in the majority of cases are in essence very similar to those used after WWII. Nonetheless,
there are different criteria and design methodologies now in practice. Not only the economic and
construction features are pondered, but other, such as energy efficiency, low maintenance, sustainable
materials and methodologies, are also considered. After, for instance, in Finland, by the 1970s timber
had been mostly replaced by concrete and steel, and more standardized components were being used
due to a boom in housing, today steel construction is not common. Moreover, there is the beginning
of a swing back towards timber because of psychological and health aspects as well as to so-said
ecological gains of the use of this technology140, which in itself is a highly debatable issue. This reveals

70
the great power of social and cultural aspects, and that the quarrels and debates are not always exactly
of a scientific or technical nature, often prevailing hearsay truths sustained in corporative agendas of
a capitalist ideology behind the defense of certain products over others. If, for some, steel construc-
tion is more sustainable than wood construction, such could not be the case in this region, as tradition
has proven its cultural strength. Furthermore, currently Norway, Sweden and Finland enjoy a large
surplus of mature forests due to a sustainable resource policy in this field.

2.2.5 PLAYFULNESS AND SOCIAL ACCEPTABILITY

It is hard to account how far the innumerous different occurrences contributed to establish a
peaceful acceptance of the idea of prefabrication. This is also a story made of a certain playfulness.
In 1932, Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish carpenter, started making wooden toys in his small com-
pany, which would be named LEGO, after of the Danish phrase leg godt, meaning “play well”, but also
related to the Latin “I put together” or “I assemble”. Initially manufactured in wood, after WWII it ex-
panded to plastic, when in 1947 the company bought a plastic injection molding machine141. LEGO
would become an inspiration source not only for children (future builders or not) and for numerous
architects worldwide, including direct reference in the contemporary practitioner Bjarke Ingels, with
his LEGO Towers (2007), or LEGO House (2014). Now with a worldwide, ubiquitous presence, LEGO
modular construction blocks are truly a microcosm of prefabricated building technologies. A limited
set of eight 2×4 blocks of the limited five-color original palette can produce over eight trillion con-
figurations.
Certainly, one of the greatest conquests of Nordic prefabrication is its social acceptability. Com-
paring with the USA, where the mobile home gave prefabrication a bad reputation, or the UK where
the same occurred with the postwar temporaries, Nordic people have generally viewed prefab as just
that: a different method of building. The large historical ballast brings a positive effect in people’s
minds in order to consider there is good quality construction in prefab. Additionally, prefab is more
typically affordable than traditional in-situ buildings142. Relevance became so high that the Royal Dan-
ish Academy of Fine Arts now has a department for research in prefabrication, the first of its kind in
comparable institutions. Additionally, many companies are now internationalizing.
An example of innovation in this field is the IKEA Company, now with housing branches as well.
A joint-venture of this renowned brand with Skanska—a major player in the construction business—
lead to the creation of Bo-Klok (literally stay-wise), taking the furniture design concept a step further,
into a complete house package, that has business in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, UK and Germany.
It is architecture providing, not anymore form exclusively through function, but form through brand,
in a fashionable, customizable way. The IKEA appeal is one of a global brand that has been set on
an idea of quality and low-cost. The furniture’s kit-like assembly is one that engages the user in the

71
process. Even the least handyman in the end may feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.
The word kit itself appeals to a multitude of people143—architects, builders or house buyers. It is
embedded with the promise of every building virtue—economy, speed, quality, reliability. Likewise,
the IKEA houses too conjure a mental appeal of the playfulness associated with the kit imaginary,
although unlike their furniture they have little of kit-like construction.

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2.3 Prefabrication of houses in The Netherlands

2.3.1 COUNTRY CONTEXT

The Netherlands is one of the most liberal and pro-welfare states in Europe. It has a developed
system of social support that includes the field of housing. It is also one of the most densely populated
countries. This situation affects the housing market in a country with a very particular geographical
setting.
Much of the prefabricated housing industry in the Netherlands was developed by the urging need
of reconstruction in the post-WWII. Housing industrialization has been a matter of relatively major
concern because of the acute housing shortage, with the added features of having a high population
density and very little soil availability. The population, of approximately 16 million, inhabits a rela-
tively small usable land area, since 19% is covered by water and 61% is used for agriculture. Its pop-
ulation density (408/km2) is the greatest in Europe and one of the greatest worldwide144. Additionally,
a great part of the land in this country has been retrieved from the sea since the 1930’s. The latent
tangibility of the land-scarcity problem, allied to a Calvinist rooted cultured, are certainly among the
main reasons for the development of a great public awareness of the central importance of planning
policies and design quality as ways for a balanced development. Housing, infrastructures, economic
activities, or land and water conservation all are regarded as fundamental concerns and this has inev-
itable repercussions in the country’s building construction culture and in its built environment.
The Netherlands is mostly a high-density, urban country, with more than 80% of population living
in urban areas. This explains the reasonability of a call for constructive concentration by the Dutch
law. Despite its density, the main house type is the single-family attached houses, and most of the
rest are low-rise apartment buildings and very few are single-family. This is too springing from his-
torical and cultural reasons, as one of the country’s greatest achievements was the number of state-
subsidized houses since WWI, with about half of the country’s housing stock of 7.5 million (2003
figures) built after 1960145. The housing profile is substantially different from the single-family home
scenario of suburban USA, or from the much higher density of high-rises punctuating some other
countries in Europe (comparatively, 53% of Germans live in apartments and most of the rest in
single-family).
Historically, homeownership rates have been low when compared to most EU countries, although
with a steady increase over the last decades from 42% in 1980 to 59% in 2009146. The rental sector is
dominated by social housing, with 75% of the rental stock, with the average rent in 2009 of about
23% of household income. A great part of the current rental stock in the low-rent sector is owned
by housing corporations, which build, demolish, buy and sell houses147. As in other places, the con-
struction sector was hard hit by the economic crisis, with 5% turnover fall in 2013. In the same year,

73
the granted building permits for new houses reached their lowest number since 1953, and the prices
of existing owner occupied houses were on average 6.4% lower than in same period one year be-
fore148.

2.3.2 A SYSTEMS’ DESIGN CULTURE

Unlike in other countries, particularly the UK, there was no anti-prefabrication backlash subse-
quent to the postwar construction. Furthermore, building methods that make far greater use of fac-
tory-finished components, such as roofs and walls, have been commonplace in The Netherlands and
are not confined to the social housing sector149. Up until the 1990s, most of the components used in
housing construction were prefabricated on such a large scale that repetition became monotonous.
However, given some of the implemented state-subsidized policies, it became possible to develop
building systems, mostly concrete-based, that substantially alleviated the in-situ processes, saving time
and money, while also enabling variability. Another characteristic is the widespread renovation and
reuse works in inner-city housing. Like in Japan, many houses are demolished and re-built, as opposed
to being refurbished, therefore contributing for a wider social acceptability of a sort of impermanence
fell. In addition, the demanding building standards ensure that prefabrication and other fast track
methods of construction are popular, helping to reduce costs150. A typical housing scheme will use a
concrete shell or traditional construction, or variations, releasing floors for a free occupancy with
industrialized and/or dry construction. Methods and materials vary, determined by the client’s re-
quirements, the budget, number of houses involved and so on, and are especially innovative in panel
systems for housing151.
In debt to John Habraken’s theory and related with the idea of open-floor layout, as far as back
as the 1960s it was being advocated that two main systems, the support and the infill, should be con-
sidered. During the 1980’s this idea evolved into the philosophy of open building, where different de-
cision levels that can be identified in a building plan that has different life cycles. Latter developments
of this concept introduced deconstruction in the philosophy of building systems, the latest known as
industrial, flexible and demountable (IFD) building152. As in other European countries, after WWII, the
Dutch housing market was dominated by the industrialization of the building process, with an em-
phasis on quantity. As the market became more saturated, the demand for differentiation increased.
In the 1970s the average project involved 200 homes, today the figure is between 10 and 20. Follow-
ing the open building research tradition, with the decision-making process gradually transitioning from
government or large developers, to customer-focused housing concepts, a higher degree of systems
flexibility began to be implemented through mass-customization, industrially driven processes153.

74
2.3.3 SOME RECENT CASES
There is a highly dynamic architectural scene in The Netherlands. The state or local initiatives,
imbued of the idea of quality control over the built landscape due to land scarcity and so forth, have
a long tradition of promoting design competitions to address real problems, and actually implement-
ing them. As result, numerous innovative architectural concepts have been devised and executed over
the years. Among some of the most well-known cutting-edge housing designs in the past decades
figure Borneo Sporenburg’s harbor peninsula designs in Amsterdam, by West 8 architects, or Water-
wijk in Ypenburg, by MVRDV architects. In these two examples, there is a clear intentionality of
establishing a frank relation with nature. Alongside, it is undoubtedly visible the use of principles of
economies of scale which potentiate the individuality of solutions, exhibited either by very strict and
clear planning principles in Borneo Sporenburg, or by morphological and structural resemblance in
Waterwijk’s Hagen Island.
The Borneo Sporenburg plan is located in Amesterdam’s former harbor peninsulas of Borneo
and Sporenburg, where a total of 2 500 dwellings have been built. The reification plan covered the
area with a fabric of low-rise/high-density back-to-back courtyard houses, punctuated by three big
landmark buildings. Numerous architects designed each of the expensive patio houses, which resulted
in a controlled, but diversified fabric. Given that there was a pre-established urban criterion, limiting
heights, widths or lengths of plots, the main architectural challenge in each of these plots was to
develop strategies in which daylight could penetrate the houses, while assuring privacy, and so forth.
The general concept does not necessarily imply the use of prefabrication methods. Nonetheless, the
detailing degree of the devised urban strategy impelled the use of typological similarity. The strategy
provided unit to the ensemble, and potentiates spatial and constructive similarity between the differ-
ent houses154.
The urban settlement in Waterwijk, an initiative by the Ypenburg Municipality (The Hague), was
though of to allocate half the housing for social rent and the other half for sale at relatively low prices.
The ensemble consists of several islands, each with different typological characteristics. The bulk of
houses are small, in either multi-dwelling or detached single-family houses, occupying relatively small
plots of land, and going from enclosed to public or semi-public occupation of space. In any case, all
share a non-urban feel. Alongside more conventional house solutions also figure more extravagant
designs, namely MVRDV’s Watervillas or Patio Island. The Watervillas, designed by MVRDV, and pic-
turesquely located by the lake in Hagen Island, form a complex of detached houses, similar in shape,
but with diverse finishing materials, such as wood, ceramic tiles, zinc, and so on. Although similar,
the houses have a varied distribution, and each house has a small plot of land that the inhabitants can
use to cultivate their gardens, overall contributing to create a friendly atmosphere. As to the Patio

75
Island, also designed by MVRDV, it can be described as a mass of 44 houses with very similar typol-
ogies, altogether forming a huge block, or island, where too a garden feeling can be present, although
in a much more circumspect way. The ensemble denotes a typically Dutch systematic approach to
construction, with concerns in the economies of scale, through typological repetition, but simultane-
ously revealing a concern in providing formal variability to the overall ensemble.
In places such as Almere, a new land area envisioned as a suburban, commuting region to the
nearby capital, where buildings begun to be constructed in the 1960s, many urban and architectural
experiments and less conventional solutions have been proposed, making it a true architectural la-
boratory. Because all reclaimed land is publicly owned, Almere’s municipality has the potential for
consistent planning, contrary to places with high private ownership. In 2001, it was completed a new
layout of 450 dwellings, distributed over 19 projects with different configurations, from 7 to 70 units.
The guidelines required all units to be different, and there was freedom on where to position the
dwelling in the plot of land. If buyers were unknown, houses where concluded in a neutral fashion.
From these, eventual less-satisfied buyers basically bought a house to be refurbished. A monitoring
process took place to assess customers’ satisfaction throughout the years. MVRDV’s Oosterwold mas-
ter plan is one of such examples, envisioning a broad-band use of use of participatory design princi-
ples.

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2.4 Prefabrication of houses in Germany

2.4.1 OUTLINE
Prefabrication has a wide acceptation in Germany, which in part can be explained by a wide his-
torical background and thus a consolidated know-how. As early as the XIXth century, Red Cross had
barracks manufactured by the German company Christoph & Unmack. From the 1880s onwards, they
produced not only barracks, but also private houses or school buildings in panel or modular con-
struction, exporting them worldwide.
The need for efficient house construction in Germany is acknowledgedly recognized among its
planners, architects, sociologists and others at least since the early XXth century. Nonetheless, indus-
trially produced houses only become historically relevant from the 1920s onwards, when an important
area of research opened up for the steel and timber industries. It pretty much coincided with the
period of the Weimer Republic (1919-1933), during which conditions were created for a cultural
effervescence, particularly in the 1924-29 period known as the Golden Era, given the economic growth
and social stability.
However, the economic crisis, begun in the late 1920s and proceeded throughout the 1930s, and
the dawn of the Nazi regime, in 1933, would lead to a political shift, with an abortion of housing
policies and changes or closing of some institutions such as the Bauhaus. Consequently, the development
of the avant-garde methods of design or construction were relegated to a temporary standstill.
In the post-WWI, hundreds of prefabricated dwelling units were produced using steel frames and
clad either with copper sheets, as in the Hirsh-Kupfer houses (1931), designed by Gropius, or with thin
steel plates, as in the Kastner houses (1930s). Between WWI and WWII, focus was mostly put in
rationalization or in heavy, concrete prefabrication systems, and although with remarkable excep-
tions, house prefabrication was taken to a secondary stand. Christoph & Unmack’s houses are one of
such exceptions, as the company had the benefit of a well-sedimented organization with a large his-
torical ballast, which granted priority in factory rights. Additionally, they had a large demand for
barracks from the beleaguered Prussians, which ensured them a steady income from such a product
disposal155. They would grow to the point of becoming leader in their field in Europe during the
1920s.
The successful story of German prefab can also in part be explained by instilled cultural and
educational principles. A playful example comes from Friedrich Froebel’s wooden blocks for chil-
dren’s education, in 1826. Froebel, a psychologist, developed a renowned education philosophy based
on free self-expression, creativity, social participation, and motor expression156. His wooden blocks,
which would later be known as Froebel’s Gifts, would become famous worldwide, influencing central
architectural references such as Frank Lloyd Wright. More recently, it became an important influence

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on the development of the shape grammar theory, with implications on ruled design conceptions
envisioning great variability of outputs157.
Nonetheless, Germany’s inculcated cultural principles regarding prefabrication have roots that
can be primarily connected with the housing problem. Numerous state subsidized programs have
been implemented over the years, of which Berlin’s case in the early XXth century is exemplary. The
awareness of the housing problem, with a long continuous research tradition, or the key role it had
in the modernist foundations, make Germany’s case undisputedly a technical and aesthetical reference
in the housing and prefabrication subjects, with key importance in the Modernist formulation.

2.4.2 THE HOUSING PROBLEM IN BERLIN IN THE EARLY XXTH CENTURY

Berlin’s population had bursted to 4.5 million by 1920, with the city becoming one of the most
populous and densest in the world. Overpopulated square blocks of 22 meters high and 150 wide
sprang across the city, in agreement to the limits set by regulations. These typically consisted of a
frontal portion aligned to street (vorderhaus), a side area (seitenflügel), two transversal building separating
them (quergebäuden), and one or several backyards (hinterhof)158.
Many thousands lived in basements, rooms had to be shared to the three or four people, in cases
work had to be made from home, and many houses were unbearably icy in winter and agonizingly
hot in summer. In Die Großtädte und das Geistesleben [“The Metropolis and Mental Life”] (1903), the soci-
ologist Georg Simmel warns against the monstrosity of the metropolis. He writes, “in the life of a city,
struggle with nature for the means of life is transformed into a conflict with human beings, and the gain which is fought
for is granted, not by nature, but by man”159. People felt the housing issue [literally] to the bone, and such
created an ideal setting for energetically address the problem through a common, collective ground.

2.4.3 MARTIN WAGNER AND THE STATE PROGRAMS

Martin Wagner, the head planner of the city of Berlin, leading promoter of the Großsiedlung (large
scale multiple units), called for the rationalization of design and construction: “The replacement of manual
labor by machines brings greater productivity. What Ford does with his cars, we want to do with the apartments”160.
A dedicated socialist, Wagner recognized the weaknesses of purely capitalist projects, and was com-
mitted in the search for more sustainable forms of financing. In his view, construction costs should
be reduced in order to allow affordable accommodation, industrial companies should replace tradi-
tional building companies, and machines should replace manual labor. Such would liberate the work-
ers, while increasing the performance of their work, contributing to improve their satisfaction levels
and hence their quality of life. But Wagner also criticized state funding policies, considering absurd

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to finance a stagnant building sector with the dynamic German industry, thus squeezing the latter
with taxes. Construction sector should hence meet the industrial sector.
To improve housing for civil servants, in 1924, the DEWOG is created (Deutsche Wohnungsfürsorgung
Aktiengesellschaft für Beamte, Angestellete und Arbeiter) [“Shareholder German Company for the Improvement of
Housing for Civil Servants, Employees and Workers”], a company whose role was to centralize capital of
the worker’s bank with public funding, in order to redistribute it more effectively. Springing from it
and too masterminded by Wagner, the GEHAG (Gemeinnützige Heimstätten-, Spar- und Bau-Aktiengesell-
schaft [“Housing Cooperative for Savings and Construction”] was created in 1924, which would primarily
enable collective housing initiatives. These undertakings had the edge of a self-financing method
playing the liberal market rules, which resulted in a highly competitive model, which ultimately
steamed effects on the housing quality161.

2.4.4 GEHAG WAVE EXAMPLES

Contemporary of Wagner, Bruno Taut had too firm rationalist beliefs, and was inspired by steel
constructions found among the industrial landscape. Both shared a rationalistic vision, but one which
was critique of a mechanistic minimum—and with a still current argument that the cost per square
meter of floor-space does not rise proportionately with the size of the dwelling162, although that may
not be the case with the value of rents paid by the tenants163. Taut also saw mass production and
prefabrication as way to cut construction costs, as it enabled the elimination of a great share of costs
with intermediary suppliers. The first product of the new GEHAG wave was built in Britz in
Neukölln (1910–1933), embodying the purpose of combating the shortage of affordable living space,
while formally following the principles of a New Objectivity.
In 1926, together with Hugo Häring, Taut designed the Onkel Toms Hütte [“Uncle Tom’s Cabin”],
which would too be financed by the GEHAG. In it, Taut envisioned a utopian, classless society bond
with nature, and criticized the selfish and utilitarian capitalist system. The complex is a triumph of
color and light, of rationalist influence but humanistic in its practicality, diversity and human scale.
Taut avoids monotony by including diversity within homogeneity, and several parts of the estate look
different to each other in terms of shape, size and color164. The sharp lines of a New Objectivity are
here smoothed by homely details such as invitingly individual doors, asymmetric windows and a pol-
ychromatic pallet. Furthermore, space in between buildings is cared with as much importance as the
buildings themselves—gardened, with benches, pathways and other comforting details. In terms of in-
novative construction processes, the Britz or Uncle Tom’s Cabin became known by the use of rational-
ization principles through restriction of the amount of house types, or in the use of technologically
innovative machinery such as excavators and conveyor belts, speeding up the construction, enabling

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a reduction of costs. Nonetheless, despite the improvements, overall the employed construction
methods had no major breakthroughs, being mostly still supported by in-situ manual labor.
In any case, prefabricated systems would be used in some of these new neighborhoods. Such was
the case with the Berlin-Friedrichsfelde estate (1926), where story-height concrete panels were used ac-
cording to the Occident process, a system that had been patented in The Netherlands and had been
previously used in Amsterdam’s expansion. This was a large, heavy-weight panel construction system
of 25cm thick, and between 25 and 40m2 per panel, with maximum dimensions of 10×4m. Because
of its weight and dimensions, the system had to be produced next to the building location, from
where it was directly erected by cranes. The panels were constituted by several layers, with aggregate
concrete on the outside and slag concreted on the inside, and the internal walls with slag concrete on
both sides. Eventually, the system’s characteristics lead to a highly complex manufacturing process
which overtime would lead to the appearance of serious constructive pathologies165.

2.4.5 ERNST MAY AND SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION

Ernst May, the chief planner of the city of Frankfurt, would write Die Wohnung für das Existenzmin-
imum in 1929, calling for flats for subsistence living, with a guarantee of minimum standards of quality
for a low-income working population. These, according to May, “should be designed to avoid all the past
misery that flats for lower paid workers have inflicted on their inhabitants. Whilst the far-reaching field of engineering
technology has been developed through exact scientific methods, until now, building has usually developed along intuitive
lines”166. Additionally, these should regard the principles of industrial production as exemplary mod-
els: “the goal must remain the factory produced dwelling – including internal fittings – that can be delivered as a
complete product, and assembled in a few days”167.
Ernst May would also be the head behind the Frankfurter Häusfabrik [“Fankfurt House Factory”],
which would produce the System Stadrat Ernst May (1927), the first concrete panel system of German
conception. This system differed from the Dutch original Occident process, as the walls and windows
were not directly integrated. Instead, openings would occur in the vacant spaces between panels, and
since these were smaller, such allowed a greater ease in manufacturing and also to effortlessly adapt
to different architectural configurations. The system had three main components: the non-reinforced
window-level panels (fenster-platte), the non-reinforced spandrel panels (brustungsplatte,
300×110×20cm), and the reinforced lintel panels (sturz-platte, 300×40×20cm). Given the smaller di-
mensions, these were also considerably lighter, which enabled the building shell of a single-family
house to be erected in one and a half days, and the construction 26 days to be ready to be occupied168.
Prefabrication as a means for efficient construction in helping to solve the house problem was
not limited to those advocating a new modernity with new formal conceptions. Even with the tradi-
tionally-oriented Stuttgart School, Paul Schmitthenner developed a factory produced half-timber system

80
(the so-called Schmitthenner System), using mixed dry and partially dry construction techniques, with
the underlying intention of modernizing the traditional fachwerk frame construction. The system had
serially produced four-sided, closed timber frames with embedded doors and windows, which were
then screwed together on site169. Final rendering of the buildings would be made in-situ, which ena-
bled the system to be undistinguishable from a compared ordinary construction. Besides using the
innovative constructive system, Schmitthenner’s traditionalist Garden City in Berlin-Staaken (1914-17)
was built according to rationalist typological principles, with the buildings spatially based on only five
types170.

2.4.6 BEHRENS AND THE ARCHITECTURE-PRODUCT

In 1906 Peter Behrens received his first commission from the AEG company to design advertis-
ing material. He would work as an artistic consultant to work on a wide range of projects, doing from
typographic design, corporate identity (from which he is precursor), product design of lamps or ap-
pliances, or building design, becoming the first so-called industrial designer in history171. In 1908 he
would design the AEG factory in Berlin, raising too the awareness of industrial forms as source of
beauty. The factory was designed as if it was its own machinery, following an aesthetics resulting di-
rectly from the use.
A new aesthetical view and the new industrial designer profession also called for a new view on
the notion of architecture as product, where the root of the question is the reproducible unit172, and
where ultimately, architecture is no longer conceptually grounded to a place. Behrens influence would
spread and gain new contours by his mentoring of three future key figures of modern architecture,
namely Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier.

2.4.7 WALTER GROPIUS AND A NEUES BAUEN THROUGH BAUHAUS

The AEG factory, and the experience as Beheren’s disciple, gave Walter Gropius an unprece-
dented background. In 1909, he proposed AEG the creation of a General House Building Corporation on
Artistically Unified Principles, to develop a “search for an underlying geometry for all formal research and the quest
for an alliance between art and industry”173. However, in 1910, when Gropius presented a prefabrication
scheme to Behrens, he was told it had no practical gains. Regardless, determined to take his ideas
ahead, Gropius sought for alliances among industrialists in order to produce his panel system for
housing.
As it would widely be expressed in several of his writings, Gropius was foremost concerned about
two ideals in architecture: industrialization and social equity. When Gropius founded the Bauhaus in
1919, he kept on defending his ideas on prefabrication. In his 1925 text Die neue Architektur und das

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Bauhaus: Grundzüge und Entwicklung einer Konzeption [“The New Architecture and the Bauhaus”] he called for
a synthesis of technique and arts through Bauhaus, framed within the spirit of a Neues Bauen [“New
Architecture”]. Main ideas were mostly driven by an aspiration of industrializing construction, allowing
repetition of mass produced components, in different house designs, adjustable to individual desires:
it was as if the poor and deprived too could finally see their needs satisfied.
The housing problem was not a new issue, but among architects the prefabrication was certainly
also driven by other, probably less noble social factors, which had to do with a not less legitimate
artistic aspiration of formal experimentation, where, as Gropius writes, “the liberation of architecture from
a welter of ornament, the emphasis on its structural functions, and the concentration on concise and economical solutions,
represent the purely material side of that formalizing process on which the practical value of the New Architecture
depends”174. Ultimately this also came to mean that the idea of prefabrication was suited to the planar
elements and cubic volumes of a new aesthetics—this despite aesthetics being an avoided word, since
form was conceptually supposed to be a direct translation of the purpose or function.
The world of the machine becomes a source of inspiration and enables the creation of authentic,
objective beauty, in an architecture accessible to a much wider audience. The art object can be accessed
by everyone, and thus the idea of a commoditized architecture is reinforced. As it is known, the
Bauhaus (literally house of construction) would become a reference for modernist architecture and
design with repercussions in the formulation of the built environment thereon. That would be en-
hanced after its politically-motivated dismissal in 1933, when its main referential figures were forced
to exile elsewhere, in Europe or the New World, spreading Bauhaus’ seeds throughout the world175.
Among those associated with the Bauhaus, the new spirit remained and many, during the Bauhaus
period (or afterword), would too jump on the prefabrication bandwagon.
In a well-known example, along with Adolf Meyer, Gropius designed Baukasten (literally building
blocks) in 1922-1923, a standardized system of flat-roofed housing, developed to study prefabricated
houses for the Bauhaus in Weimer. Baukasten was thought of as a system of standardized components
to be industrially produced, that would function as a variable kit of interlocking parts, to form a near
infinite array of configurations. It was as if a big toy, as Gropius described: “an oversized set of toy building
blocks out of which, depending on the number of inhabitants and their needs, different type of machines for living can
be assembled”176.

2.4.8 PREFAB EXPLORED THROUGH STEEL CONSTRUCTION

There were plenty of architects and engineers interested in exploring the lightness possibilities of
steel during this period. In 1926, Gropius oversaw a housing estate in Toerten-Dessau, where Georg
Muche and Richard Paulick designed a steel prefabricated house. In 1927, Marcel Breuer designed
two separate steel-framed prefabricated houses, called Bambos I and Bambos II, designed for the

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younger Bauhaus masters. Although never built, these prototypical designs served as a starting point
for several concrete-panel later produced, and marked Bauhaus’s turn towards a philosophy of ration-
alization to achieve a new unity of art and industry177. Around this period, other steel-house prefab
prototype designs can be found among the Carl Kaestner Company, Bruane and Roth, or the Woehr Broth-
ers178.
The housing crisis in the 1920s led some big firms getting interested in the construction business.
Such was the case of Hirsch-Kupfer, a major firm in the copper and brass industry, which acquired a
patent for transportable, insulated metal walls. They created a division for prefabricated houses that
was set to develop an eclectic catalogue of prefab houses with exterior face in copper. Walter Gropius
was posteriorly invited to refine the design, and make it marketable. He would approach the problem
in a quasi-scientific way with a right-angle connection system for the copper panels as well as a cata-
logue of design choices designated as Type M2 or Type K1 depending on the layout179. Despite the
successful presentation of two prototypes, the company went bankrupt. Nonetheless, the copper
house division continued as an independent development. After the National Socialists came to
power, the political changes led to a flea of Jews that took it to market in Palestine, where it proved
popular and even causing a branch of the company to open in Haifa. Albeit the interest and some
initial success, the war would inflate cooper prices, which had become more valuable for arms pro-
duction than for houses—it is said that the last copper house was immediately melted down upon
arrival, copper value being higher than the house cost180.
The formal preferences expressed by Gropius in the Hirsch houses could be observed in houses
designed by Josef Hoffman for Vogel and Noot, Hans Scharoun for Christoph & Unmack, or Johannes
Niemeyer for Bohler, sharing a clear preference for hovering cubic volumes, flat roofs, and tectoni-
cally-expressive panel seams 181 . After Bauhaus shut-down in 1933, Gropius, along with Konrad
Wachsman would continue its work on prefab systems in the USA, developing the Packaged House182,
which would also not be commercially successful.

2.4.9 THE WEISSENHOF SIEDLUNG INNER CIRCLE

Also linked to Gropius, and involving some of the greatest European architects of the time, the
1926-27 Weissenhof Siedlung [“Weissenhof Estate”]183 model housing development, built in Stuttgart as
part of the Die Wohnung exhibition, would become indelibly linked with the propaganda of these new
modern forms, as it would be of propaganda to efficient constructive principles184. The development
was directed by Mies van der Rohe, and organized under the Deutsche Werkbund [“German Arts and
Crafts Society”], which had been founded in 1907.
As would later be noted by Henry Russel Hitchcock and Philip Johnson185, the Weissenhof Siedlung
would be inextricably linked to CIAM and the formulation of the Modern Movement through an

83
International Style, bringing architects such as Le Corbusier, Scharoun, Oud, Gropius, Behrens, or Max
and Bruno Taut. The purpose was to show the potential of the ideas related with standardization,
rationalization or prefabrication, in order to address the house problem in a wide social scale, becom-
ing a flagship of innovative modern architecture.
Nonetheless, many of the produced examples are closer to bourgeois villas than to houses for the
working class. Mies’s block was built on a steel frame, but most of the work followed in masonry and
coating was in traditional methods. Indeed, regardless the constructive rhetoric (not to mention the
social rhetoric), Le Corbusier’s or Mies’ cases were prefab, but Breuer’s or Gropius’ were not. None-
theless, this fact further reinforces the value of prefab and the ethos of the discussion, as the percep-
tion of some construction methods when compared with the others is undistinguishable.
The issue of the concordance between appearance and constructive method employed is further
stressed when we observe Gropius’ House no. 16 and House no. 17. Gropius had devised this pair of
two-story houses to be using dry panel system and a steel skeleton, placed at regular 1.06m intervals
and a single central column. Both the houses followed the same planning principles, either in the
structural dimensioning, or by using the same standards for panels, windows or doors sizes, which
allowed a close construction time. However, whereas House no. 17 used prefabricated elements in a
dry-construction assembly method, House no. 16 used a traditionally laid masonry. The great percep-
tible difference between both houses was in the visible cover-strips of the external sheets in House no.
17. The plans strictly followed a one meter dimensional regulation (or exceptionally half of it), which
highly constrained their potential efficiency.
Gropius would have argued that any spatial inefficiency could be offset by constructive economy.
With the Weissenhof experiment it seemed he would be right. However, the promise would not always
be fulfilled, as even in the post-WWII period, when panel system building was conducted longer and
at its largest scale, it did not prove particularly cheaper than traditional building methods186.
Contrary to Gropius, Mies van der Rohe was not particularly interested in prefab, although he
was keenly interested in industrialized building as a means of design. From Behrens, Mies had cer-
tainly learned an attention to craft and detail, as noticeable through the precision and quality of his
buildings. He did use the factory to produce his designs, and rationality and potential of detail repli-
cation of construction elements within a single design is normally a rule, but components were mostly
customized for each case. He had no particular interest in building houses for the masses and most
of his designs were anything but inexpensive. Therefore, his influence was more aesthetically educa-
tive towards a wider social acceptance of a Neues Bauen than for the design or production of panelized,
modular or other types of prefabrication systems.

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2.4.10 THE FRANKFURT KITCHEN
The Weissenhof Siedlung vanguard, and again the streamlining of planning and building through
rationalization, prefabrication, or standardization, would too be used as a model by Ernst May as
head responsible for the planning of the social housing project New Frankfurt (1925-1930), in Frank-
furt’s suburbs. In this perspective, the Frankfurt Kitchen, designed in 1926 by the Austrian architect
Margarete (Grete) Schütte-Lihotzky, stood as a milestone for being the first to reproduce the dimen-
sions in relation to the human body, to the movements of the cook and to new equipment (gas, water,
electricity)187.
Designed like a laboratory, the kitchen ascribed to the functional and hygienizing theories. When
researching for the design, Grete undertook detailed motion and anthropometric studies, interview-
ing housewives and women’s groups. Around 10 000 units would be built in the late 1920s. Every-
thing was pondered to detail: kitchens came equipped with a gas stove, a swivel stove, built-in storage,
a removable trash drawer, a fold-down ironing board, and adjustable ceiling light; labeled aluminum
bins provided organization for goods like rice and sugar; the materials were carefully though, with
parts ascribing to specific functions such as surfaces to resist knifes. The standardized unit dimen-
sions promoted interchangeability of parts.
The success of the kitchen is now a proven historical fact. Throughout the 1930s until the 1960s,
kitchens would often be smaller, and the Frankfurter criticized by being too luxurious whether in size
as in the materials. Nonetheless, it stood for its principles, which would soon be adapted to other
places such as Switzerland or Sweden. Whether design-wise or sociologically, its relevance is so per-
vasive that would become a collector’s desired item and it can be found in the collections of numerous
museums, among which figure MoMA in NYC or the Victoria and Albert Museum in London188. The
kitchen has undoubtedly set a resolute shift towards the industrialization of house components, and
can be regarded as the first great step towards the contemporary kitchens, with their typical 0,60m
modules.

2.4.11 THE NAZI HIBERNATION AND A POST-WWII REBIRTH

During the Nazi regime and subsequent wartime period, there are no remarkable developments
in prefab. If that is a consensual fact from a German perspective, on the other hand prefabrication
may have won WWII to the Allied Forces—through the capacity to set up production, barrack troops
or workers in construction that could as easily be built up as they could be moved away, make airfields
and so forth, using efficient and often prefabricated construction methods189. Nonetheless, after the
war, the previous achievements in the production of homes in Germany caught the attention of USA
interests who prepared an exhibition of prefab houses in Stuttgart Zuffenhausen in 1947190.

85
 A surge in the development of prefab houses occurred in this period, when reconstruction highly
increased housing demand. Examples can be found in system construction by the Holig-Homogen-
Holzwerk company, in Baiersbroon, or in J. Hebel aerated concrete panel houses—the Hebel panels
had 50cm in width by 200 or 250cm length and a 15+10cm thickness for external and internal walling.
The aircraft designer and manufacturer Willy Messerschmidt became interested in joining the
achievements of the industrial state of the art into the building industry, and came up with a solution
of encasing the aerated concrete panels covered in metal sheeting to better withstand the elements
and enhancing finishing materials possibilities.
Another aircraft manufacturer, Dornier, which had previous experience in temporary housing con-
struction, produced ready-built two-story houses, which were structurally built in lightweight steel
profiles. They were built ex-situ in box-like modules with complete internal fit-out which would then
be transported to their final assembly location, cladded and rendered in-situ. When the company
retook aircraft manufacturing, the production of houses was terminated191. In the 1950s and 1960s,
the German timber industry and house builders started to invest heavily in modern methods of pro-
duction192.

2.4.12 GDR’S PLATTENBAU AGE

In the former GDR (German Democratic Republic, or East Germany), industrialization of the
building industry became a political program with evident, cross-fertilized links with the Soviet re-
gime. As with the Soviets, large modular construction, and large panel construction sprang. The most
common system in this period became the WBS 70 (Housing Construction Series 70), which, as it had
occurred with the earlier Occident System, also consisted of elements with finished surfaces and built-
in windows.
This system and several similar concrete-panel systems, at cases with external decorative motives
embedded in the very concrete, or using decorative tiles, became known in the GDR as Plattenbau193
(similar to the Khrushchyovka’s in USSR). These and similar others, in Germany and elsewhere, would
determine the appearance of new social housing developments and also of residential areas, such as
the villes nouvelles and grands ensembles around Paris, the suburb of Neuperlach in Munich or the
Märkische Viertel in Berlin.

2.4.13 WEST GERMANY SYSTEMS

Despite the somewhat monotonic notes in the East, liberalized alternatives sprang throughout
West Germany, as noticed in the example of Günter Behnisch’s concrete-based prototypes, such as
what as became known as the System Behnisch. In 1959-63, together with the engineering school in

86
Ulm, Behnisch developed what he called the “the first large-element, fully prefabricated building in Germany”.
In 1965, he would write that “the use of these standardized elements and systems brings us exceptional advantages,
so that in the future we will be liberated from the work that, up until now, has overwhelmed our offices (…) The
architect will be free for new major undertakings”194. However, as it is well-known, such a mythical architectural
solution to all problems would face criticism, and different design philosophies and their associated trends
would emerge.
In 1970-72, Otto Steidle, together with the Swiss architects Doris and Ralph Thut, executed an
experimental housing in Genterstraße in Munich, employing a prefab concrete system allowing vari-
ation and flexibility, and inciting dwellers to freely fit-out and adapt their house to changing needs
over time195. The structural system is openly expressed, providing a frame for different infill elements.
The system has load-bearing and non-load-bearing parts, which can be visually recognized, and
thereby intuitively provide the inhabitants with knowledge that enables them to alter or add to their
respective house without great technical expertise. It is an open system which greatly ascribes to
Habraken’s support and infill notions, successfully deploying it. After 50 years, the external perception
of the buildings is still aesthetically intact, regardless the considerable interior changes that have oc-
curred.
Also related to an open approach to design, Richard J. Dietrich, of the University of Stuttgart,
designed a steel-frame modular building system called Metastadt-Bausystem (1965-72). As the name
states, the design, envisioned as a meta-system, is supposed to provide a concept for a flexible model
of urbanism, and which, as if a giant Meccanno set with endless parts, can be varied as created. The
implemented pilot scheme is developed in a plan that is supposed to expand unlimitedly both hori-
zontally and vertically. The structural module is 4.2×4.2m and 3.6m height, with a spatial modulation
of 0.6m. There are main supporting columns every 16.8m and cantilever spans up to 8.4m. Within
this setup, spaces can be enclosed as needed. The different elements—loadbearing and non-load-
bearing elements, and services—are kept independent: the structure is kept separable from the infill
through demountable walls; the frame structure itself is bolted so it can be rearranged as necessary;
the external panels are interchangeable. Up to the very name, Metastadt (meta-city), hints an idealistic,
uncompromising, open nature. The result is a cluster form, resembling a randomly laid set of blocks.
In the end, due to technical faults that resulted from cost cutting measures, the building was demol-
ished in the early 1980s196.
In a totally different approach, but too ascribing to a cluster kind of form, the firm of Hübner-
Forster-Hübner developed the theme of octagonal capsules, which had been previously worked out by
the Israeli architect Zvi Hecker in his design with polyhedric modules’ cluster of 720 units for the
Ramot Housing Complex in Jerusalem in 1974, also known as the beehive. Whereas Hecker’s modules
were made of steel, Hübner’s cluster of 23 prefab cells, located in Stuttgart’s suburbs, were made of

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plastic. Each module was delivered to site fully equipped with heating, pumping, wiring and even
wallpaper197. More than a contribute for housing and construction efficiency problems, these designs
contributed to enrich the available formal vocabulary, their greater value standing in their experi-
mental character and vanguard (even if naïve) spirit.

2.4.14 CURRENT PREFAB BUSINESS

The prefabrication industry is now a significant force in the German market. In 2002, over 23 000
lightweight prefabricated homes were completed, equivalent to some 13% of all new detached or
semi-detached homes built that year. In Eastern Germany, the proportion was higher than the na-
tional average, at around 20%198. The use of steel, timber panel, concrete framing and masonry panel
systems is growing rapidly, with many eco-designs also being marketed.
German clients favor packages that include financial services, assistance with finding sites and a
range of standard, customizable house types. This has led, since re-unification, to packages offered
by contractors, architects and building societies that combine multiple expertise. In many cases, build-
ing societies have been concerned with the increase in house prices, which prevented young families
looking for their first home. These building societies recognize that a reduction in housing cost by
22% could generate millions of extra homes and hence, of course, millions of extra customers199.
Overall and unlike in the 1980s, with the Plattenbau hangover, contemporarily prefab in Germany
has a good image, being associated with good quality construction. Reasons found on current com-
panies and market practices for a wide acceptation of prefab methods may be ascribed to the contin-
uous innovation and staff training, or in the implementation of quality control processes. Building
associations also have an important, dynamic role, promoting conferences, training sessions, contrib-
uting in the development of quality standards and certification schemes and consistent promotion of
the merits of prefab. Like in the rest of Europe, most construction companies are SME’s, nonethe-
less, the prefab market is dominated by major companies such as WeberHaus, Schwörerhaus or Elk-Bien-
Zenker, with some exporting to European markets (e.g. UK, Austria or Switzerland) or World markets
(e.g. Japan or Russia).
Ordinary, non-authorship prefab has kept moving at its own pace, but although often with strong
architectural contributions, the fervent spirit of the early modernist times has never been felt again.
The naïveté of the fervent belief in technology to move humanity forward, or in design to solve the
societies’ issues is presumably no longer occurring as it was in the 1920s or the 1960s. On the other
hand, what is a state-of-the-art technology, when tested in time and proven fit, soon becomes part of
regular practices. The speed of our days contributes to a faster obsolescence of new practices, as their
novelty is tested and discarded, but it also contributes for an oblivion of good old practices.

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 From a designer’s perspective options are numerous, and is often hard to discern what the best
solution can be for a given case. In terms of house construction solutions these are most generically
divided in to two types of structural technologies: the Fertigbauweise (literally meaning “Prefab Construc-
tion”), which makes use of lightweight construction elements and is typically linked with a traditional
idea of house prefabrication, and among which can be found companies such as Baufritz or Weberhaus;
and the Massivbauweise (meaning “heavy construction”), which includes concrete or masonry elements,
and is normally more dependent of in-situ practices, and among which can be found companies such
as Glatthaar Fertigkeller, or Johanni Ziegelhaus.
In the current state of the prefab market, technologically numerous materials and techniques can
be found: from timber, concrete, steel or lightweight steel based structures; in frame, light-frame,
panel or modular systems; with composed elements with insulation and with or without internal fin-
ishing, and so on. Production-wise, among the different companies the degree of mechanization and
automation in the different stages, factory or in-situ, also varies immensely.
Market-wise, prefab is frequently used in new detached single family houses. Most of the pre-
designed houses have a traditional look, but other forms are marketed, given the substantial flexibility
and variety in finishing materials. Prices vary a lot, depending of materials and equipment, and so on:
a starter house can cost about €80 000, whereas in the top market there are no limits, but can normally
range up to €400 000 (2004 figures), depending on multiple factors.
Some companies offer several finishing materials options for similar design layouts to meet the
client’s budget, or a greater or lesser flexibility in terms to adjustment to the client’s greater or lesser
spatial or aesthetical expectations, with typically a higher price for more flexibility in the customer’s
customization options in terms of design layout or materials and vice versa. Customers choose among
the numerous procurement options, among which the catalog houses have been growing. In such
procurement option, generally the client is also responsible to acquire the land and take care of legal
permits and so forth. Houses can too be bought in different stages of the construction process. One
of such procurement ways is the Ausbauhaus, in which the external part of the house is pretty much
built, but the interior is not or only partially built. This has been a growing procurement option, since
it allows for buyers to have more latitude to adjust houses to their needs, spending less in the initial
buy, and get more engaged in the construction process, with potential savings and certainly with a
different sense of fulfillment. It also is important to refer that the German law imposes an additional
fee to the real-estate promoters which also design the houses they build. To a certain extent, such
discourages prefab manufactures’, at least the smaller ones, to go into the real-estate market, leaving
it wide open to the prefab sharks’.
As in any other competitive market, manufacturers invest highly in promoting their products.
Besides individual companies’ showrooms house prototypes, to aid customer choice, there is a big

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investment in presenting prototypes in show villages and home show parks, which have in display
dozens of houses of several manufacturers, each fully equipped and furnished. Another important
promotional method makes use of magazines, such as Pro FertigHaus, to divulge prefab construction,
presenting a range of different configurations, styles and products, which helps keeping consumers
informed. Some companies are selling kit-of-parts homes in retail stores, which makes them true
consumer products.
Companies also develop great efforts in terms of quality delivery, highly investing in areas which
are not directly visible to clients, such as R&D or staff training, often with a combined purpose of
achieving certain desirable certification labels which too contribute to promote their products. The
more recent trends in certification has been the energetic efficiency and/or sustainability labelling,
such as the widely implemented Passivhaus, which has led many manufacturers to develop new stand-
ards in terms of material, light or energy demands. Coordination among real-estate sector expands
the scope of some of these companies, allowing them to act in different sectors of the market, where
they act not only as house producers, but as real-estate developers, and on the procurement level,
offering a complete, integrated package of services to the client. These give more visibility to their
brands, and contributes to expand their market into the multiple streams of the sector.

2.4.15 THE CASE OF WEBERHAUS ‘OPTION’ (BAUART AG ARCHITECTS) AND WEBERHAUS SYSTEMS
A contemporary example of collaborative work between the German industry and an architectural
firm is the WeberHaus ‘Option’. Developed from the smallhouse.ch concept by the Swiss architects Bauart
AG, is a modular built house manufactured in wood, totally ex-situ made. The appearance is mini-
malist and the house philosophy is, according to the architects, for a minimum cost and maximum
design quality—outside is blocky, inside of “surprising generosity”. The modular house grows with the
needs of its residents. Only one thing remains the same—the unconventional mixture of panoramic
windows and horizontal wood siding. The small sized, yet sophisticated design and construction, is
thought to be a standalone building or to complement existing buildings and facilities.
The basic version modules are of 4.13×10.11m, having a clear interior area of 35m2 on the ground
floor and 30m2 on the first floor. Four generous windows, located on each face, provide the box with
the necessary natural light. These are associated with four spatial zones, characterizing its appearance,
contributing for its overall consistent and reduced, functional and object-like look.
Functionally, the basic version of the two-story box-like house offers living and dining room,
hallway and complete kitchen, a fully equipped bath, a gallery and, separated by a sliding wall, two
rooms for sleeping or working. Access to the house is via the short side straight into a front room
with an open connection to the kitchen space that is positioned in the center of the house. Past the

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kitchen is another room from which the first floor is accessed. The upper story is identical to the
ground floor plan.
In addition to the basic box, ground plan variants like an L- or U-shape with an inner atrium are
possible. Other options of this system include the grouping of volumes. The simple, volumetric, form
can be either used on its own, or two and three of these volumes can be combined to create a bigger
unit. One basic module with a one-story extension can be combined with a mirrored version of the
same to form a small courtyard in-between; or, any number of ‘L-shaped’ modules can be built next
to each other. A one-story module can be attached to either side of the back room of the ground
floor—either to simply enlarge this room or to create another room. On the first floor this module
can become an accessible roof terrace. An option for pitched roof may also be used. Additionally, if
building regulations allows, the modular concept and the rational construction allow for later exten-
sions without any problems, allowing a prospective buyer to start with one small house and extend
this when needed.
The construction is of wood frame, with final assembly of a panel type of construction. The con-
struction system is developed by the building company Weberhaus, which currently provides three
main types of wood walls systems: breathable wall construction, styrofoam and PE foil-free. These
systems allow virtually any finishing type. The same applies to their other systems—roof, windows
& doors, and basement.
The company’s philosophy may be regarded as one of developing high standard construction
products which may be adaptable to different design specifications. This enables the client to build
its own design, adjusting it to their system’s characteristics and limitations; for Weberhaus to develop
their own catalogue; or for the client to use the company’s design teams. In all cases, either a more
traditional, or more contemporary designs may be developed, as it is the case of Option. Additionally,
since there is a strong concern on developing certified systems on multiple fronts—sustainability
practices, toxicity proof and allergy-friendly standards, product warranty, quality control in construc-
tion production and erection processes, and so on—there is an enhanced reassurance for both the
designer and the client that the end-product will satisfy demanding requirements.
The compactness of the house can certainly be regarded as an indicator of the willingness of
people to actually live in a small, compact house like this, even when such is not dictated by an urban
context. Its basic version size foresees a small house for singles, at best a couple; as a vacation home
or interim accommodation, some may regard. But nonetheless its expansion possibilities keep a sense
of compactness in space that goes beyond the mere vacation bungalow that a distracted look may
regard at first sight: it is a compact, adaptable and expandable house fit to contemporary family pat-
terns and a contemporary lifestyle.

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2.5 Prefabrication of houses in the UK

2.5.1 OUTLINE AND EARLY EXAMPLES

UK’s colonization efforts were probably the main igniter of prefabrication in the western world.
These efforts would have increasingly serious and sustained attempts from the late 1700s and early
1800’s onwards, when the devised constructive systems would definitely be spread all over the world,
propelled by the developments of the industrial age and the prosperity of Victorian Britain. Easy to
transport and assemble construction systems were of utmost importance in the military and colonial
expansion. In the military, since early stages, the focus has been in speedily erecting and dismantling
temporary structures—barracks, as they became called. In the colonization efforts, besides house con-
struction, also were included schools, hospitals, churches or storehouses. Simple houses, with not
much detail were manufactured in the UK, then dismantled into transportable components, and fi-
nally globally shipped as building kits to the USA, Africa, Australia or India200. These were not as
extensively prefabricated as it can be understood in our current state-of-the-art. Nonetheless, they
already represented significant gains in efficiency and speed of construction. Their appearance was
usually unpretentious and shed-like, and the construction typically made with precut wood frames
and board cladding, with the different parts often requiring some in-situ trim and fixing, and in many
cases with doors and windows prepared and shipped as complete components201.
There are numerous early examples. The first is recorded in the USA in 1624, and consisted of
portable cottages shipped from the UK and assembled in the fishing village of Cape Anne. These
panelized wood houses, initially destined to be used by the fishing fleet, were subsequently disassem-
bled, moved, and reassembled several times. In the late XVIIIth century a hospital, a warehouse and
several small houses (or cottages as they were called) were shipped from England to Sidney. The cot-
tages were in timber frame and had wood panel walls, floors and roofs. Similar systems are reported
to be shipped to Freetown, in Sierra Leone, to build shops, a church and several other buildings. In
1790, the British shipbuilder John King builds and assembles a double-story house called The Hut at
his shipyard. He then disassembles it, and hauls it in pieces to its final site in Emsworth, England, re-
erecting it in only sixteen hours202. In 1820, a colonization mission in Eastern Cape Providence, in
South Africa, was accompanied by three-room wooden cottages203.
Due to the increasing insurance premiums on wooden houses, and the increasing range of areas
in which iron was being used, the latter would become a predominant building material by mid XIXth
century. Whether in wood or iron, this coincided with the first serious and sustained attempts to
devise prefabricated systems, shifting labor from site to controlled and mechanized conditions in
factory. Among these, the wood-based Manning Portable Colonial Cottage, built in England and shipped
to Australia, is probably the most influential throughout XIXth century British settlements. It began

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as a portable cottage made by Henry Manning for his son, who was emigrating from London to
Australia. His son’s cottage would become the prototype for what would turn out to be the first
widely documented, fully prefabricated and packed house system. It was a commercial success, as
Manning developed several models of varying size and cost, testifying to the fact that the houses were
provisioned for clients across a range of incomes, and to the notion that the prefabricated house
could be a measure of status in the colonial setting. Furthermore, it was widely publicized, as illus-
trated in a famous 1837 advertisement in the South Australian Record. The system included the prefab-
ricated wood frame, infill components, the standardized and interchangeable panels, and used the
same dimensional logic with all the elements. Structurally, the cottage consisted of grooved wooden
posts, embedded and bolted into a continuous floor plate carried on bearers. The posts carried a wall
plate that supported the roof’s simple triangulated trusses. The standardization of all parts eased its
construction, and spatially constrained all the layouts to rectangular based shapes. The final cladding
was performed with various wood panels of standard size occupying the full height of the facade,
alternating fully opaque with window or door panels. While many houses in Australia and other Brit-
ish colonies prior to 1833 had been built with materials shipped from the UK, the Manning Cottage
appears to be the first designed specifically for ease of travel and construction, with Manning stating
that a single person could carry each individual piece constructing up the cottage. Some of the generic
principles of the system would influence subsequent technologies, pioneering the values that would
become common in prefabrication, such as dimensional coordination or components standardiza-
tion204.

2.5.2 A GLOBAL REVOLUTION

Through ingenious technical advances occurred throughout the industrial revolution, the ancient
knowledge of iron speedily expanded to a mechanized sphere during the XIXth century. Not only the
more malleable wrought iron or the harder and heavier cast iron, but also steel (the best of both
worlds), could finally be produced in large scales, and such was in a great deal due to several British
contributions. By using coke instead of coal, using higher temperatures, compressed air, and other
techniques that were feverishly being developed and readily becoming available, it became possible
to manufacture better quality iron-based materials in sizeable quantities 205 . From a deepened
knowledge of iron and steel, to its employment in construction was just a small step. Initially used
primarily in the machines, rail tracks or shipbuilding, soon it became obvious that it enabled longer
spans. That meant larger, non-obstructed spaces, useful in building factories with large machines.
The employment of the different forms of iron for a wider range of buildings would follow.
Via the British contributions, prefabrication soon became a true iron flagship. It certainly was a
major contribution to the British colonial movement, with many applications in components such as

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windows, columns, beams or foundation elements, and with many innovative by-products, such as
the corrugated metal sheets. In 1829, Henry Robertson Palmer, Architect and Engineer to the Lon-
don Dock Company, registered Patent No. 5786, for “indented or corrugated metallic sheets”, envisioning
its use primarily for roofs. However, the development of the machines to corrugate the metal plates
would be in the hands of Richard Walker and James Jones. Corrugated iron, useful for its lightness
and durability, rapidly became popular, and thus widely used in prefab construction. Indeed, with
greater or lesser variations, it is still currently broadly used for many different purposes206.
When in the late 1840’s wrought iron became reasonably cheap, its mass use in construction be-
came possible. Prefabrication with timber still continued when in the 1850’s numerous different iron
structural systems were developed. Initially cast iron was used mostly in a one-off basis for specific
customers, in structures which required a high durability, such as lighthouses, and then also in a few
grand houses. However, with the introduction of corrugated metal this began to change, since cor-
rugation outstandingly increased the rigidity of the thin sheets while maintaining its lightness, which
favored maneuverability and transportability of the constructions207. Among the places of export, the
Californian story is quite remarkable. Before the opening of the Panama Canal (1914), ships had to
travel long down south to Cape Horn and up back north to transport goods from one side of North
America to the other, and in practical terms this meant California was nearly at the same distance of
Europe as of New York. With the huge house demand caused by the California gold-rush (1848–
1855), the context favored the British know-how, with its producers seizing the chance to plentifully
export their iron houses208.
An architectural or a building construction background was rarely the case among the developers
of iron prefab. One of the first exported buildings came from Liverpool and was designed by a naval
engineer, John Grantham, and built by the shipbuilders Thomas Vernon & Co. Shipbuilding remarkably
added technical know-how, as it was where iron frame construction was most advanced. Throughout
the 1850’s prefab iron houses were built by the thousands for the Californian, South American, South
African or Australian markets, by producers with diverse backgrounds, such as: John Walker of Ber-
mindsey, son of the first corrugated iron manufacturer; Edward T. Bellhouse of Manchester, a engi-
neer and millwright who had developed his iron construction skills in constructing cotton mills; Ed-
win Maw of Liverpool, whose background was as manufacturer of railway rolling stock; or Samuel
Hemming of Bristol, which would dedicate most of his work to iron prefab.
Among these, there was a wide variety of constructive systems, which were independently devel-
oped by each company. For instance, Edward Bellhouse used his 1853 patented system of round
cast-iron flanged columns, shaped for ease of attachment of the corrugated iron paneling; Samuel
Hemming, one of the most prominent builders entering the Australian market with an astonishing
quantity and variety of buildings, typically used either a timber or wrought iron frame, internally clad

94
with wood planks and externally with corrugated iron209. But the iron prefab golden era would be
quite short-lived, with the business eventually declining after 1860, with several contributing reasons.
The rise of iron prices by mid 1950s, and the Crimean War (1853-1856), diverted the trade, setting
up a shift. Meanwhile, colonies started to develop their own construction industries, and the corru-
gated iron got out of fashion because of its lack of thermal mass and high conductivity, unbearable
in the hotter tropical or sub-tropical climates.

2.5.3 CRYSTAL PALACE AND A SYNTHESIS OF AN IRON TRADITION

The first iconic architectural use of cast iron had been in bridge construction, in 1779, for the
Coalbrookdale Company Bridge over the river Svern, designed by the Darby brothers, which was mostly
prefabricated. Cast iron construction envisioned the use of mass-produced components as a kit-of-
parts. Although not a pioneer, cast iron prefab would become highly visible after the construction of
the Crystal Palace, by Joseph Paxton, for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in England, which would turn
into a worldwide icon of the use of standardized cast iron components. The structure was a seemingly
repetitive system of standardized components that took only eight months to design, manufacture
and assemble. Such would only be possible with manufactured kit of parts, and the idea of using
repetitive, self-supporting bays that could be erected independent from one another by unskilled
workers210. It reiterated, on a grand scale, a philosophy of construction underwritten by all the pio-
neers of prefabrication, both in theory and in practice, linking the precut timber frame of a remote
ancestor, the Manning Cottage, with the new material, the cast iron.
Considering the context of the epoch, the amount of industrially produced parts in the Crystal
Palace is quite remarkable, with columns made of composite structures that could be connected to
extensions or several decorative features, glass panels of standard dimensions and their supporting
framework accordingly: a complete building system of modules, components and connections. Be-
sides its intrinsic architectural quality, as stated by Gilbert Herbert, “its value also resides in its dramatiza-
tion of the possibilities of prefabrication, in its revelation of the potential of industrial processes speedily to create vast,
precision-built, immaculately engineered architectural works – a potentiality that was only hinted at in the pioneer
works”211. Paxton’s intention of completing most of the work in factory was however undermined by
the reality of the construction circumstances that have partially detracted the initial concept. Anyhow,
its significance goes beyond the industrial processes it relied upon, to the extension of the rationali-
zation of the building to the entire construction process. About this, Herbert writes: “in its organiza-
tional concept, its realization of the processes of building, its handling of the flow of materials, components, and labor,
in its production of systems and subsystems, and in its coordination of the entire vast enterprise as a planned sequence
of events, the building is unique for its time”212.

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 According to the modernist angle of Siegfried Giedion, from an architectural perspective, the
Crystal Palace is, in a great deal, also responsible for an architectural shift of the understanding of the
form besides history, and towards an aesthetics derived from the function213. It is also important
since it proved how architects, engineers and producers could work together, representing, according
to R. E. Smith “a shift in understanding among architects, that beauty may be as simple as the functional means of
production”214. The bulk of anonymous prefab would also have a fundamental role in the buildup of a
new perspective on form and on a collaborative notion of design. The industrial revolution not only
had brought up new materials, and changed manufacturing capabilities and public perception of the
desirability of industrialized products 215 , but also had brought up great housing needs to cities
crowded by a migrated rural population. To fulfill these needs, mass production seemed problematic
among some architectural circles. Criteria of economy and efficiency were not consensual as orna-
ment appraisal was valued by architects and the intellectual community at the time, as was the case
of William Morris; not to mention that many of these innovative cast iron buildings, or even the
bridges or other constructions, were highly ornamented, at least for today’s standards, and such was
also an indelible mirror of the epoch. However, growing housing needs and its inevitable social pres-
sure would demand large scale production. A new fusion between art, science and industry was re-
quired, and such would also be one of the grand projects of architectural Modernism.

2.5.4 POST-WWI PREFAB PROGRAMS

As in other places, the housing shortage would be a major problem in the critical postwar periods.
Given the degree of destruction and a convalescing productive tissue, the huge volume of demand
following both WWI and WWII conflicts could not be fulfilled. In the UK after WWI, it was esti-
mated a need of 500 000 new houses just for the heroes returning from war. The scarcity of raw
materials, shortage of skilled personnel, and the long construction times of ordinary methods, were
unable to meet the needs. Skilled labor was about half of the prewar level, and union blocks resulted
that progress in training newly demobilized soldiers was slow. Conditions were thus created to the
inevitable recognition of the need to use different approaches, leading to a deep reconsideration of
construction methodologies towards innovative processes. Wartime development of the armament
industry had too produced a considerable spare production capacity, as well as technological advances
in construction equipment whose use was feasible by unskilled workers. In such a scenario, the gov-
ernment envisioned a combination of technical innovation and financial incentives as a way to capi-
talize the available resources216. A number of official acts would prepare the way for prefabrication
developments. The chief financing instrument was the Addison Act of 1919, which introduced con-
siderable subsidies for local authorities, while giving incentives for houses embodying new construc-
tion processes. The government also launched the Homes Fit for Heroes programme, which encouraged

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non-traditional house construction. The Standardization and New Methods of Construction Committee was
another mechanism launched in this period, an agency set up to validate alternatives, approving a
great number of system comprising a wide range of new techniques and materials217.
One of the most successful of these new construction systems approved by the committee would
be the Dorlonco System, by the steel company Dorman Long, which presented a somewhat unusual,
hybrid configuration. The system’s architects, Adshead, Ramsey and Abercrombie, created a house
conforming to the popular, traditional looking, neo-Georgian style with sloped roofs, solid orna-
mented chimneys, and sash windows. The regulated sizing and placement of door and window open-
ings fulfilled the simplification and standardization aspirations, and was suited to systemized con-
struction. Constructively, the system is a hybrid of dry and wet technologies. The structural frame,
consisting of pre-cut rolled steel angles erected in-situ, was designed to accept a number of different
claddings, from conventional brickwork to concrete rendering on an expanded metal lath reinforce-
ment. Internal linings were very robust, consisting of plastered clinker concrete blocks. As a result,
the houses give the impression of being extremely solidly built. However, in some of the construc-
tions, the system would reveal severe pathologies, with thermal variation derived cracks in the con-
crete cladding letting in the water and rusting the steel. The Dorman Long Company manufactured and
erected the steel frame, while the remaining construction was carried out by local builders. The system
would be considered the most successful in post-WWI house types, with around 10 000 built in the
1920’s. It was not only a success in terms of commercial viability, but also in terms of production
longevity, with some examples dating from post-WWII period218.
The Duo Slab, produced by William Airey and Sons Ltd, was another of these new systems. It con-
sisted of in-situ wooden cast concrete columns, and precast concrete slabs. The houses were also of
a traditional appearance. Around 4 000 were built and would prove remarkably durable. As in the
generality of the postwar constructions, since there was shortage of skilled labor and lack of in-situ
machinery, construction elements had to be light enough to be manhandled, and more than using ex-
situ prefab methods, these used site-prefabrication methods, as was usually the case with precast
concrete. After all, concrete was a relatively new and innovative technology, under a great deal of
experimentation, and it is common to find a mixed use of concrete cladding or filling with steel
frames. Nonetheless, steel paneled houses were also developed in this period, as was the case of the
Cowieson, the Atholl and the Weir, the latter with 1 500 units, all with timber frames clad by flat steel
plates219. Regardless the technology, the systems that emerged during this epoch can be clearly divided
into two major groups: those that employed skilled workers in factory and shipyard production, and
those that employed a combination of small-scale in-situ precast concrete and in-situ formwork con-
crete to maximize the use of unskilled workers. Dorlonco system, as well as Atholl, Telford, Weir, Scano,

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Boot or Parkinson systems were among the first group, whereas Duo-slab, as well as Winget, Fidler, Bos-
well, Dry Walls, Easiform, Forrester-Marsh or Universal systems were among the second group220.
With the shortage of materials and labour after WWI and the consequent acute increase in the
price of building, the huge demands made on the Treasury by the Addison Act subsidy meant that the
programme would be severely cut. When it ended, in 1921, only 214,000 houses had been approved,
bellow the initial estimated needs221. Of these, only some 50,000 non-traditional houses had been built,
short for the original expectations, but deep in impact. The influence on the country and the building
industry was relatively minor, but it would have a long-lasting impact on consumers, producers and
building professionals. By the 1930’s, the idea of cheap prefabricated bungalows, clad in materials
such as asbestos or corrugated steel had proven broadly attractive to the public, in particular in the
niche of holiday or retirement houses. Their sprawling effect on the countryside was pernicious, but
they had public acceptance and offered advantages in cost and building speed. Initially, one of the
major propelled goals of the incentive program had been to contribute to overcome the housing
shortage. However, this contribution had had a clear political and economic agenda, set to implement
a postwar economic stabilization and employment growth. As time went by, and with the balanced
situation of the early 1920’s, the initial agenda eventually lost its relevance222.
Despite the strong inputs, the prefabrication evolution would not occur steadily, virtually ceasing
after this period for not being sufficiently consistent to compete with ordinary construction methods.
As incentives terminated and skilled labor and traditional materials came back on stream, proven
techniques retook their regular use, and so faded the interest in the prefabrication methods. The
general lack of price competitiveness in comparable solutions also did not contribute. The govern-
ment had never been completely committed to prefab, but to the agenda, seeing prefab as a temporary
solution. It was useful in the post-WWI period due to the high number of houses being built, but it
turned out to have little long-term impact in the construction sector at the time. Nonetheless, UK’s
post-WWI construction methods, their ebullient development, placed them among the most ad-
vanced in the world, and were attentively watched in the US and Germany223.

2.5.5 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE POST-WWII TEMPORARIES

It was not until post-WWII that the UK would again see great improvements in prefab. Most of
the new designs were developed from scratch, rather than evolving from any of the interwar systems,
and with a great proliferation of different building techniques. The State was faced with the problem
of providing speedily built dwellings on a colossal scale, and how to ensure factories kept on working
after the wartime demand had ended, while economy was still in recovery. From this point, to imple-
ment a framework of incentives to prefab or system building, it was just a small step224. Therefore,
again, an incentive program was created, alongside a series of committees, workgroups and the like.

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In September 1942, the UK Interdepartmental Commitee on House Construction was formed. Its chief goals
were to implement and promote the development of alternative materials and construction methods,
in order to increase the efficiency, economy and speed of construction. The program was to investi-
gate alternative techniques and materials, consider its application and test them through experimental
methods. Prefabs would become a major part of the overall housing construction efforts, envisioned
during the government of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and legally outlined in the
Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act of 1944, familiarly known as the Temporary Housing Programme
(TPS), with an initial projected state allocation of £150 million. Through the aegis of the programme,
some 156 623 two-bedroom temporary bungalow houses would be supplied between 1945 and 1949,
exceeding the initial valuation, with a cost of over £200 million. The average price per bungalow was
of £1 324225, also exceeding the first estimates of £1 200 for a house in the country and £1 300 for
an urban house, with values including the land cost and all site preparation226.
The bungalows were subjected to a design brief and a prototype from which a competition was
organized. Therefore, the bungalows would not be based in a single spatial or constructive design,
but instead in different layouts through different methods of framing and cladding for a basic set of
accommodation. These different methods were constrained to the house brief set by the prototype
developed through the tutelage of the Ministry of Works (commonly named Portal Bungalow after the
Minister, Lord Portal), and first exhibited in the Tate Gallery in February 1944227. The maximum area
that could be built was 92.9m2 for a two-story house and 86.4m2 for a bungalow228. Due to war, the
bungalows were also forbidden to use materials that were in short supply (e.g., timber), and with its
construction following strictly economic principles or, in alternative, using available materials that
had not been previously associated with housing (e.g., aluminum). When the Ministry of Works
opened up the design competition based on these conditions, some 1 400 designs were submitted,
with many rejected at a conceptual stage, while others after a prototypical stage.
Of the relatively few approved for construction, only four types would be made in sizeable quan-
tities. The Aluminium Bungalow (54 500), produced by AIROH (Aircraft Industries Research Organisation
on Housing), a 62.7m2, easy to assemble, four sections all-aluminum frame house, with two bedrooms,
kitchen and bathroom, and fully furnished down to the curtains. The Arcon (38 859 units), developed
by Taylor Woodrow and later Edric Neel, a 57.2m2 asbestos prefab house with fully-equipped kitchen
and separate bathroom module, and two non-equipped bedrooms. The Uni-Seco (28 999), produced
by Selection Engineering Company Ltd of London, which had three different versions, made with a timber
frame and asbestos paneling, and with a flat-roof. Finally, the Tarran (19 014), produced by Tarran
Industries Ltd of Hull, with timber frame and concrete paneling, and that would have both one- and
two-story versions. Produced in incomparable lower numbers, others would however be built in non-

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neglecting quantities, such as Spooner (2 000), Universal (2 000), Phoenix (2 428), Orlit (255), or Miller
(100)229.
For the number of built units and for the technical achievements, AIROH’s bungalow was defi-
nitely the most interesting. It was designed to use the unused capacity of the aircraft industry, and
was made in five factories spread across the country: an authentic mass production of houses dream
come true. The assembly lines that once had produced airplanes could now produce the four com-
plete sections of the ten tone Aluminium Bungalow in just twelve minutes. The frame and external
paneling were in aluminum, while the interior was lined with plasterboard and the core filled with
aerated concrete for thermal insulation. Roofs had two layers of aluminium sheets resting on alumi-
num trusses. The floor was the only part in wood. Wiring, plumbing, furniture, doors, windows, or
fully equipped kitchens were all installed in the factory in each of the four modules. They were then
transported by truck to site, and assembled through an ingenious self-positioning connector blocks
mechanism. This was state-of-the art housing technology, yet it looked quite normal both technolog-
ically and architecturally, since after built few could distinguish them, for instance, from the relatively
more primitive Arcon230.
Despite the successful number of built units steaming from the TPS program, the prefabs and, in
particularly the AIROH’s, were relatively expensive. By 1947 AIROH’s were costing £1 610 each,
which outstandingly exceeded the initial estimates of (£1 300), as well as the average of its competi-
tors’ houses (£1 178). Its costs, alongside its commercially success—since it constituted about one-
third of the total TPS production—would have an important weight in the overall average house
price of the total program, raising it to over £1 300, while the weighted average of the remaining two-
thirds of total production was only £1 125. These figures also did not contributed for a very favorable
comparison with the average cost of permanent house in 1947, which was £1 400 for a three-bed-
room house231. According to Davies, given these numbers, in free-market conditions with no state
subsidies, as in the USA, the whole TPS program would probably have failed232.
Regardless the construction types, the TPS gave people detached bungalows that could be rented
through the local authorities233. Thought of to be temporary, and using unusual materials, their ap-
pearance was considerably different from both the inter-war local authority cottage and the inter-war
speculative bungalow. If these, and prefab in general, did not represented a paradigm of industrialized
construction for the architect and designer, there was nonetheless an impact in public opinion, which
through it became somewhat prepared for the unusual looks and unusual methods of house produc-
tion. Notwithstanding their unconventional and apparently impermanent materials, the bungalows
swiftly became homes, that is, places cherished by their inhabitants. Indeed, they have always been
popular, particularly because their layout foresaw a garden space to be attributed to each tenant.
Although not overjoyed by their appearance, the public would retain a certain affection and nostalgia

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for these houses and their small gardens, and some have even found their ways into museums. As
prove of such affection, a fierce conservationist battle, praising for its heritage value, took place about
the Excalibur Estate near London, where the last of these temporary houses remained. The side favor-
able to the demolition claimed that the prefabs had no value for any sort of heritage classification,
arguing that they were mere “temporary prefabricated buildings, not architectural gems”. Considering their
immense social value the statement is controversial to say the least. In 2011 the Estate demolition
was announced, in a conversion program set to last until 2018234.
Initially the TPS envisioned the houses to have an expected life-span of 10-15 years, though many
have lasted much longer. But such short life expectancy—as well as its ‘temporary’ label—had its
reasons, which certainly were more of political/publicity statements, than technically based ones.
According to Brenda Vale, there were three major reasons for the ‘temporary’ label: to accommodate
the idea of technology in people’s minds235; to work as an insurance to the traditional building trades
and their unions236; and last but not least, because of their method of finance. The latter reason seems
to be the most important, and was likely related with the past financial experience on post-WWI, in
which the Addison Act program for permanent housing ended up severely shortened. In the TPS, the
program implementation was relinquished through licensing schemes to the local authorities. For the
bungalows to be produced in the same way as, say, a car or an aircraft, many different production
facilities had to be engaged so to achieve the desired economies of scale. Such implied a centralized
effort, which nonetheless had to be concealed so to avoid conflict with local authorities. In this sense,
the temporary label could be regarded as a convenient tag, in what was actually a government-owned
emergency housing program237.

2.5.6 SUCCESSFUL POST-WWII COMMERCIAL SYSTEMS

In terms of permanent housing, the official policy after WWII had many similarities with the post-
WWI experience, that is, while taking the chance to further explore the prefab potential, go back to
ordinary construction practices as soon as possible. As with the post-WWI workgroups, an Interde-
partmental Committee on House Construction (also known as Burt Committee) worked between 1942 and
1947 in order to “consider materials and methods of construction suitable for the building of houses and flats, having
regard to efficiency, economy and speed of erection, and to make recommendations for post-war practice”238. Among
the several systems approved by the committee, the most successful was a steel-framed permanent
house, designed by the architect Sir Frederick Gibberd, and the engineer Engineer Donovan Lee, and
sponsored by the British Iron and Steel Federation (BISF).
The BISF was an association of steel producers formed in 1934, in order to provide central plan-
ning for the industry, and had had a prominent role in output coordination through the War. Gib-
berd’s office had also design the steel-framed Howard House, privately developed by John Howard &

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Company (1 500 units produced), and both designs were approved by the Burt Committee. In total
36 000 BISF houses were built between 1946 and 1951. Three BISF house types (A, B, and C), with
minor differences would be built as prototypes but only a fourth A1 type would be mass-produced.
These were built as either semi-detached or terraced houses, with 89.18m2. Formally, they were two-
floor, double-slope roof houses. Although quite flexible in terms of outer cladding, these normally
differed the lower and upper stories’ cladding material. Overall, the houses transmitted a solid ap-
pearance, which is probably linked with the claddings that were normally used. The external cladding,
particularly on the first story had a prevalent incorporation of traditional or simulated-traditional
materials, such as brickwork. In some cases, the first story material would be extended to the second
story, but usually the latter would be clad with a steel sheet profiled to match timber weatherboarding.
The final cladding was set against a 50mm layer of in-situ concrete on expanded metal lath, which
was supported by a structure of prefabricated rolled steel tubes. A tubular steel structure was too
used to support the floor pavements. The inner cladding and the partitions were usually of timber
framing faced with plasterboard or hardboard, and the ceilings were often of site-applied plaster over
a layer of concrete on expanded metal lath. Some of the lower story partition walls were often also
plastered over concrete blocks masonry, which too ascribed for the overall sense of robustness.
The Airey Duo Slab was another successful system which, alike BISF, too had prewar roots. Sir
Edward Airey was a builder who had used concrete for a house design in the 1930s. As part of the
postwar housing programme, he developed a new design with prefabricated concrete columns and
prefabricated concrete slabs. The concrete was reinforced with steel tubes extending in the ends of
the columns so that first story and second story columns could be fit together. Columns were posi-
tioned at 457mm center around the perimeter of the house and clad with shiplap style concrete panels.
Internal lining was made with a variety of materials, with plasterboard over glass fiber insulation as
the most common (particularly upstairs), but also with concrete block masonry (mostly downstairs).
The triangular spandrel panels over the gable ends were finished in timber weatherboarding or plain
tile hanging. With time there was a number of pathologies that came to be associated with the system,
namely because of the corrosion-prone column joints and the column slenderness, where at best the
concrete cover was 12mm. The concrete components were made across nine factories. The system
was used to build many house layouts. The most common are the North Aspect (the Urban version),
with hipped flat roof, and the far more popular South Aspect (the Rural) house, with a steeply pitched
roof, both semi-detached two story three bedroom houses. The Airey Company was a pre-cast con-
crete firm rather than a building contractor and most Airey houses were erected by local firms. The
components were relatively lightweight, dispensing the need for large cranes, but the building process
was relatively slow; substantially slower than panel system. Some 26 000 Airey houses were built after
the war239.

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 There is an immense proliferation of systems throughout this period. Developed since the 1920s,
commercially the most successful in the post-WWII were the price-competitive in-situ concrete sys-
tems. Amongst others, renowned styles and trade names include Airey, Boot, Cornish, Laing Easi Form,
and Wimpey No-Fines. These were not strictly prefabs, but had a great degree of systematized building
procedures. Used in different business models, the No-Fines System was the most successful, particu-
larly among the Laing Easi Form company, and most remarkably through the Wimpey No-Fines com-
pany. Together these two companies would build over 100 000 units. Laing Easi Form built over 25
different styles ranging from bungalows, through traditional looking houses to four story apartment
blocks240. The Wimpey No-Fines product was also very flexible, as it could be used for a variety of sizes
and styles of housing, low, medium or high-rise, its construction was lighter and used mainly unskilled
labor, which overall made it cheaper; finally, the company had a well-established business network,
which eased its promotion to local authorities241.

2.5.7 SOCIAL PREJUDICE AND THE RISE AND FALL OF SYSTEMS

Among architectural circles, the idea of prefabrication or system construction was regarded with
some resistance. During wartime, RIBA had depreciated prefabrication, regardless the obvious need
for some form of mass housing construction. Nonetheless, in 1943, RIBA would recognize prefab
advantages, yet only in a temporary housing scope. They also regretted the de-skilling that prefabri-
cation would represent to the building industry. Those more conservative feared that it would reduce
the need and scope for original design, or even to the point of destroying the demand for architects242.
There was also a latent fear of permanence of a traditional aesthetics, unlike what was relieved in the
work of some remarkable architects such as Richard Neutra in the USA, or Walter Gropius in Ger-
many. However, some architects were more open minded about the idea and would give their con-
tribution in the development of many of these systems. Among the progressive supporters figure
architects such as Frederick Gibberd, F.R.S. Yorke, Hugh Casson or Grey Wornum243.
The goal of building large numbers of houses, while still attempting to maximize the use of space
was a permanent concern. By the mid-1950s precast concrete panel systems, more keen to medium
or high-rise construction, were proven the cheapest among the different available systems. These
were also more appealing to architects, “who could imagine themselves to be realizing Le Corbusier’s Utopian
urban visions of the 1920s and 1930s”, as Davies says244. Alongside, one of the most relevant realizations
of State sponsored research would be the modular coordination in the 1960s, as it introduced a fun-
damental framework to networked modular prefab systems, which would hardly be developed by
commercial firms alone. One of the applications would be in the Consortium of Local Authorities Special
Programme (CLASP), a consortium that was responsible for a major school building program. The

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large-panel concrete systems (LPS) were also developed from this modular coordination research245. A key
advantage of LPS was that they were cheaper than any other form of construction.
Bison would become the most active company in the development of panel systems, designing and
producing several building systems, of which the most prolific was the Bison Wall Frame246. Using
licensed technology developed in Denmark, the LPS were introduced in the UK in the early 1960s.
These consisted of precast concrete panels of large dimensions, which relayed on their own dead
weight, and the friction it produced, to hold everything together as if a house of cards. Assembly on site
was thus simply a matter of lifting panels into place with cranes, where they were then located onto
bolts. In 1965, 163 developers were producing 138 different large panel systems for housing. Each
main contractor bought the licenses to produce LPS to a Danish firm—Taylor Woodrow bought Larsen
Nielsen, calling it Taylor Woodrow Anglian; Laings bought Jespersen; and Wates developed its own based
on similar principles. The variations between the systems stood mostly in the edges of the concrete
panels, and thus in the modes of joining.
Many of the buildings constructed at the time with these elements ended up having waterproofing
problems, leaks and poor thermal performance. Many of these problems are said to have their most
probable cause in the lack of skilled labor and not on design errors. Nonetheless, the perception of
poor-quality construction would inevitably become associated with prefab. The episode of the 1968
gas explosion in the Ronan Point tower in East London, which used a Larsen Nielsen based system,
would determine the end of panelized concrete high-rise construction in the UK247. The explosion
on the 18th floor caused a progressive collapse of an entire corner, whose panels fell like a house of
cards. Although it was proved in 1970 that the collapse had not been related with the kind of con-
struction, but of poor workmanship, public confidence in the safety of residential tower blocks was
irreparably shaken, and would have legal effects, tightening regulations of panelized concrete con-
struction, with effects that would spread to other countries. State withdrew sponsoring on this type
of buildings and a massive demolition of the remaining LPS buildings would be witnessed since248.
With the cheaper and scalable LPS gone, the needle was pointed back to other alternatives. In the
postwar, the Burt Committee had rejected timber frame designs because of the shortage of wood supply
and the need to import, hence preferring steel or concrete buildings. By the mid-1950s the shortage
was less significant and the Ministry of Housing began experimenting with timber frame systems. The
National Building Regulation introduced in the mid-1960s encouraged the use of timber frame. Subse-
quently, from 1966 to 1975 many timber frame systems were developed, however not differing much
from earlier frame systems (and from each other). In total, it was built more than 80 000 timber frame
dwellings in over 30 systems249.

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 Propelled by the changes introduced after Ronan Point, during the 1970s private developers and
local authorities begun developing timber frame housing on a big scale, and six years after the explo-
sion, the most common form of prefabrication method was in wood frame250. Probably the biggest
advantage of wood over steel or concrete is that the investment in manufacturing equipment is rela-
tively minor. One of the most successful systems in the 1970s was the Frameform, by James Riley and
Partners. It was mostly a set of standard construction details, and designs could be sent for Frameform
to detail, hence appealing to system-minded architects. Timber frame was enthusiastically adopted by
private builders in this period, peaking in the late 1970s. By the beginning of the 1980s some 20% of
new houses were timber-framed. However, in 1983, a TV broadcasted documentary pointed to tech-
nical failures in timber frame houses. Although these were later proven to be primarily related with
poor workmanship, the negative publicity undermined public confidence in these. As consequence,
the percentage of timber frame houses reduced considerably251.

2.5.8 REMARKABLE ARCHITECTURAL CASES

Aside the systematic approaches, many architectural experiments related with prefab have been
made throughout the years. In the 1960s arouse a design trend which ascribes to a post-industrial,
space-age pop vision, with projects such as the Zip Up enclosures Nos. 1 and 2, (1968-71), by Richard
and Su Rogers, or Archigram’s Living Pod (1966), by David Greene. These would foremost stand by
their appealing images, particularly to architecture students. Emerging in the 1970s, the High-Tech
movement was conceptually bonded with an idea of factory made components with in clean,
glossy appearance, made of plastic, metal or glass, that could be quickly assembled in-situ without the
relatively messier wet methods of in-situ concrete or masonry. Most of the outcomes would not
be individual houses, nonetheless, a few one-off examples may be listed, such as the Hopkins House
(1975), by Michael Hopkins, or the Yacht House (1983), by Richard Horden and Horden Cherry Lee.
In 1968 the Dupont company promoted an architectural competition called House for Today, where
Richard and Su Rogers came second with the remarkable, pop futuristic Zip-up House—a kind of
Yellow Submarine on pink legs. The design envisioned a house built of insulated aluminum sandwich
panels, joined by neoprene gaskets formed into a rectangular tube with rounded corners. The train-
like windows, the formally stressed modularity and its site-adjustable slopes, gave it a kind of space-
age ship resemblance. The project would stand mostly by the simplicity of the concept and the ap-
pealing image252.
The Living Pod, was one of the multiple products of the Archigram fantasy factory. One of the most
well-known designs, Plug-in-City (1964), envisaged a megastructure of diagonal steel tubes, to which
thousands of Living Pods look-alikes would fly or drive into. It is an odd mix of fantasy and realism:
the enormous dimensions of the structure; the complexity and awkwardness it creates. David

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Greene’s Living Pod stands as an investigation into a housing unit that could function independently
of the megastructure, as if it was a spaceship. The design draws a clear distinction between the phys-
ical envelope of the housing unit—the pod—and the mechanical apparatus that makes it livable for
its inhabitant253.
The Hopkins House was designed for and by Michael Hopkins himself, a former Norman Foster
partner. Hopkins designed his own high-tech version of the Eames house, to function as a house, as
well as studio for the recently established architectural practice. Construction techniques used in
larger commercial buildings were used in the design, with a structural grid of 2×4m to rule the com-
ponents dimensions. The high-tech aesthetics is clear, and resulting both of a preference and mani-
fested in elements such as: the visible steel of the structural elements, the glass, the expanded metal
lath for decking or corrugated steel for roof, or the use of full-height sliding doors. The floor plans
are open and flexible, with venetian blinds hanging between the internal columns defining the various
living functions, whereas prefab melamine partitions enclose the more private areas of bedrooms and
bathrooms254.
Finally, the Yacht House, was built in 1983 for a family with modest means, which, after the con-
crete base was laid by a local firm, would themselves build the frame in little over 5hrs. Also a former
Foster collaborator, Richard Horden designed a house which is the living example of ‘technology
transfer’, a theme much cherished in the High-Tech trend. The particular technological element to be
appropriated was aluminium and stainless steel spars from a Tornado Yacht, designed by Rodney
Marsh—the owner worked for a local yacht component supplier—which would be used to build the
spatial frame. The house is a simple assemblage of standard components. The structure follows a
3.7x3.7m grid, on a plan made up of 5x5 bays. If the owner so desires, the roof and cladding compo-
nents can be moved, rearranging the plan255.

2.5.9 CURRENT REALITY

In the present-day reality256, the application of prefab is still currently limited. In 2004, it com-
prised only about 2.1% of the construction sector, including new buildings, rehabilitation, repair and
civil engineering works. The biggest reason for the reluctance of users to accept this kind of innova-
tion is probably related with the difficulty in determining its benefits, and, for many of the actors in
the construction process, these are still not clear. There also still a number of barriers to overcome
which can be related to an enrooted perception that the prefabricated buildings are of poor quality.
The UK has been since the earliest stages a leader in prefabrication. However, investment in
quality has not historically been as recognized as for instance in Germany. Public prejudice on prefab
certainly can find many reasons throughout history. However, normally these are due to poor work-

106
manship, rather than to the systems themselves, nonetheless with a contribution to an overall stig-
matization of these. It is important to know the associated potential of prefab so that it can be used
within a sustainable development frame. Overall, it is clear that its success, on the one hand, and
regardless the trends, will be related with a sustainability scope and, on the other hand, that it must
satisfy high design quality standards, and not to be exclusively focused in technological standards.
Nonetheless, there is a latent concern on these issues reflected in the abundant UK based research,
institutional reports, committees, building associations, published materials, and so on.
The mid 1980s break in timber frame houses, adding to the earlier break in LPS and to negative
perception of the postwar temporary prefabs, was also a determinant backlash for prefabrication in
general, from which it would only begin to recover in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as noticeable in
the themes of numerous research reports. Indeed, much of the institutional efforts have been focused
in recovering a certain lost enchantment with prefab, trying to move away an installed prejudice.
These normally point not only to old-known recipes of economy and speed, but also to the new
concerns in environmental sustainability. As result, a number of key reports have come up, namely:
John Egan’s Rethinking Construction (1998)257; the DTI report on Current Practice and Potential Uses of
Prefabrication (2001)258; the Housing Forum report Homing on excellence : A commentary on the use of offsite
fabrication methods for the UK housebuilding industry (2002)259; the SFC report Accelerating Change (2002)260;
the EPSRC and DTI report conducted by Gordon University under the LINK Project, on Overcoming
Client and Market Resistance to Prefabrication and Standardisation in Housing (2002)261.
The construction sector contributes with 6.7% of the total economy in the UK, with around 10%
of the employment associated, being the sixth largest construction sector in the world. Prefabrication,
or OSM (Off-Site Manufacturing) as it is more commonly called in the UK, has historically been, and
keeps on being, a highly scrutinized area. Given the importance of the sector for the overall economy,
and the relevance of OSM, there are numerous reports available, not only describing the sector com-
panies and market profile, such as the Housing Forum Manufacturing Excellence UK capacity in offsite
manufacturing (2004), but also looking ahead, tracing scenarios of what may be in the future.
Some 30 years ago, in A Private Future, Martin Pawley262 told that housing was a product in a
consumer society. A great majority of people in the UK rented their homes instead of owning them.
Additionally, a negative image became associated with prefab. If for the postwar tenant dwellers life
could be good in prefabs, it is hard to understand for younger generations how those temporary
houses could ever have been good. Meanwhile, the numbers have reversed: in 2009 roughly 80% of
British dwellings were owner-occupied263.

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2.6 Prefabrication of houses in the USA

2.6.1 EARLY HISTORICAL LANDMARKS

USA culture is embedded with a feeling of impermanence and pioneering dating from its very
foundation. This is reflected on a very different view of the house when compared with the Europe-
ans. The very notion of traditional home is certainly a lot different for a USA citizen, with many social,
cultural, natural or technical reasons contributing for that fact. The evolution of construction meth-
ods throughout history in the USA had different nurturing conditions than in Europe. For instance,
for an unfamiliarized southern European, probably more accustomed to observe masonry construc-
tion, the balloon frame construction can seem somewhat strange. In the least, this signals that, despite
the feared dangers of homogenization blowing from globalization, there are social and cultural idio-
syncrasies that just stubbornly root things to a place or a common practice.
Nonetheless, the USA prefabrication begins with Europeans, British settlers, in the XVII century.
Circumstances such as the expansion to the West and the Californian Gold Rush provoked phases of
urgent demand in housing, many of which suppressed by British prefab exporters. Demand would
nurture the development of new technologies, such as the corrugated iron in the early 1800s. It would
also foster the refinement of existing technologies. The case is most obvious in the evolution of wood
construction and the development of the balloon frame, and later the platform frame and subsequent
developments, with effects spanning all the way to contemporary frame constructions, whether of
wood, light-gauge steel-frame, or others.
The light timber-frame, which includes both the ballon and the platform frame, resulted from two
main factors: abundance of wood and a rapidly growing industrial economy with mass-produced iron
nails and lumber mills. Buildings could be erected so quickly that Chicago was almost entirely con-
structed of this technology before the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. The tragic event would lead to a
massive rethink of fire-safety issues, insurance policies, and ultimately of construction methods. On
the hangover of the Great Chicago Fire, the Chicago World's Fair: Columbian Exposition (1892-93) would
be set with an optimistic view towards the future, with many innovative house appliances on display,
and with innovative electrical house appliances making their première and causing great buzz. The
exhibition displayed high-end technological products that would find their ways to homes nationwide
in the following times, such as the first fully-electrical kitchen, including an automatic dishwasher,
and phosphorescent light bulbs.

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2.6.2 INVENTIVENESS AND PLAYFULNESS
As in other places, a certain playfulness and feeding of an inventive spirit has become familiar
over the time. Evidencing it, are those toys that have spanned generations such as the Erector Set or
the Lincoln Logs.
Erector Set is the trade name of a metallic toy construction originally patented in 1913, invented by
A.C. Gilbert in 1911, and manufactured by A.C. Gilbert Company, at the Erector Square factory in New
Haven, Connecticut, from 1913 until its bankruptcy in 1967. It consists of collections of small metal
beams with nuts, bolts, screws, and mechanical parts such as pulleys, gears, and small electric motors
that became the most popular toy construction in the USA. The brand would be bought and is still
currently for sale—currently with the brand name of Meccano in the USA. The Erector Set is believed
by many to have been the subject of the first national advertising campaign in America for a toy. Its
great success made it part of American folk culture, although its popularity has faded in recent dec-
ades in the face of competition from molded plastic construction toys, electronics, and other more
‘modern’ toys. As other similar metal building toys, and unlike other building toys, such as Lego or
Lincoln Logs, it is not mimetic of modular or kit-of-parts construction but involves a prescriptive way
of bringing together prefabricated unique parts. Many other metal building toys were made in differ-
ent parts of the world. Brands like Ami-Lac would sound in Italy, as Stabil or Armator in Germany,
Dan Dare or Vogue in England, Exacto in Argentina, Stokys in Switzerland, Temsi in The Netherlands,
Merkur in the Czech Republic, Steel Tec in China, or Mecanno, the most famous worldwide264.
Lincoln Logs is the brand name of a building toy, that was invented in 1916 by John Lloyd Wright—
the patent was obtained in 1920 and the name registered in 1923—the son of Frank Lloyd Wright,
and was named after Abraham Lincoln—the President who had begun his celebrated life in a log
cabin in Kentucky. They are among the building toys developed in parallel to prefabricated housing
research in the XX century, consisting of notched miniature logs, analogous to the ways US log cabins
were built. With them, its author makes a convincing case that the vernacular log cabin is indeed a
system born of prefabricated way of thinking and making265.

2.6.3 FORDISM AND TAYLORISM

Big boys have big toys, and Ford’s Model T is the epithet of an American way of life, of liberty acces-
sible to everyone. To produce his Model T, in 1913 Henry Ford fully implemented its iconic assembly
line—worked out along the previous five years since he first tested the idea in 1908—in the brand
new Highland Park plant, revolutionizing industrial production systems. Although overcome in to-
day’s high-end production philosophies—such as the lean production—at the time, with Ford’s method,
lower cost was possible but with higher end-product quality. On the basis was the purpose to achieve
a more precise product while decreasing labor and production time per unit266.

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 Although not directly related, Frederick Taylor’s economic philosophy expressed in the Principles
of Scientific Management (1911), would be frequently associated with Henry Ford’s production philoso-
phy. Taylor’s work was a decisive influence in production management and efficiency that endured
in the decades to come, in what came to be known as Taylorism. It would only be in the late 1900’s
that his theory would start being questioned with the rise of new methodologies and theories such as
the Toyota Production System (TPS) or the Lean Thinking philosophies. His scientific management, at
times controversial, consisted on four main principles. Firstly, to replace rule-of-thumb work meth-
ods with methods based on a scientific study of the tasks. Secondly, to scientifically select, train, and
develop each employee rather than passively leaving them to train themselves. Thirdly, to provide
detailed instruction and supervision of each worker in the performance of that worker’s discrete task.
Finally, to divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the managers applied
scientific management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the tasks267.
Following the ideas of both these precursors, by the late 1910s, several companies began offering
high-quality prefabricated houses. Producing houses in factories, these followed principles derived
from consumer goods production, yielding quality and lower costs.

2.6.4 CATALOGUE HOMES AND A CULTURE OF CONSUMPTION

The home appliances, and soon the homes themselves, alongside a myriad of different purposed
products, were divulged by numerous publications across country. The advertisement methods found
one of its great precursors in 1842, when Andrew Jackson published Cottage Residences, and later, in
1850, when he published The Architecture of Country Houses. These books contained designs based on
the balloon frame and dozens of imitations appeared subsequently268. In 1876 George Palliser, an Eng-
lish immigrant who had worked as a carpenter and joinery manufacturer, published Model Homes for
the People, a booklet that would be the first of 21 to be released by him and his brother in the next 20
years. They would market themselves as architects. The potential clients would choose from their
catalogs and require its own adjustments from which they would produce the required drawings for
permit and production by local carpenters. The Palliser’s were not the first firm to offer blueprints
by mail-order, but they were the first to turn the process into a kind of architectural consultancy
based on the adaptation of standard designs269. In another example, in 1903, Gustav Stickley founds
and edits The Craftsman, a monthly magazine “set out to cleanse the American architectural palate by promoting
a new, simple Arts and Crafts influenced style”270. He would publish pattern books to make the style acces-
sible to clients and builders—More Craftsman Homes (1912) contains plans and views of 78 so-called
mission style houses and bungalows. His business would collapse in 1916 but his style lived on. These
cases are marks of the installment of an American suburban vernacular, and signal the beginning of
an era where houses by catalogue would dominate the built landscape in a sprawled countryside.

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 Among other factors, technologies, together with advancements in production methods and an
increasingly better transportation infrastructure, namely railways, created great conditions to the de-
velopment of catalogue companies. Aladin Homes and Sears Roebuck and Co. feature among the most
prominent catalogue houses selling companies, which would have a big boost in the early 1900s, to
later fall under the harsh economic conditions of the Great Depression. The Aladdin Company was
among the first and one of the most long lived manufacturers of mail-order kit homes in America.
Between 1906 and 1981, the company sold precut home kits (of numbered, precut pieces) that were
assembled in-situ by the purchaser, or a contractor hired by the purchaser. The manufacturing pro-
cess was efficient because it removed the waste associated with in-situ framing, increasing speed and
improving precision. Over 75 000 kits were sold along its lifetime271.
In 1908, Sears Roebuck & Co. Houses by Mail launches its first catalogue, Book of Modern Homes and
Building Plans. Two years after, the company, at the time famous for its multi-product catalogue sales,
decided to start the houses program (it had started selling building elements of their catalogues in
1895). In 1940, when it was shut down, the company had sold over 100,000 houses. The owner,
Richard Sears, believed that if a company sold an entire house, then it could sell all the items to go
inside the house. The company eventually eclipsed competitors mostly due to two reasons: first, not
only could a buyer purchase the entire house and furnishings from Sears, but Sears would also finance
the purchase with a house mortgage; second, Sears owned the entire fabrication process from the
lumber mills to the doors and windows factory. Houses selected by customers on the catalogue were
shipped directly to them by railroad, and the packaged precut materials were numbered and assem-
bled according to a plan book, like a giant toy.
The mail-order catalogue promised door-to-door delivery and assembly of every element of the
house. The models ranged from simple one-room structures to elaborate multifamily, multistory
units. Almost all models used the ballon frame or some kind of derivative, but different veneer coatings
would hide any traces of the constructive techniques, following the trends in popular home design
and affording the client the added benefit of customizing numerous aspects of each house. Sears
houses also pioneered the use of drywall and asphalt shingles, and they introduced the central heating
for residential use. The houses were produced massively, systematically, efficiently, and affordably.
Nonetheless, the designers (and customers alike) self-consciously made every effort to bury these
qualities underneath an artificial veil of handcrafting that was remarkably easy to spot. This earned
the discredit among architecture circles, despite the immense social significance to the history of the
prefabricated house272.
As in other places, the success story of American prefab is essentially a story of people with needs
and aspirations that are ought to be satisfied—to live in a nice place, in a nice house with good
neighborhood, safely, and so on. Exclusively looking into numbers, these needs and aspirations are

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more often detached from architectural practices than the opposite. It is a story of the social relevance
of an idealized simple, happy and prosperous life, grounded on construction technology, more than
artistic or intellectual relevance of an architectural aesthetics, of a taste, or of a way of life. And it is a
success that is probably more linked with the psychology of consumption, acquiring or blending
within a certain social status through the more or less visible, more or less subtle possessions—e.g.
the car, the clothes, the phone, the house with swimming pool, and so forth—than with anything
else. Moreover, it is a culture that is inculcated since early stages, as utterly represented in the idea (or
narrative) of the American dream and of an American way of life.

2.6.5 A MEDIA DRIVEN, INVENTIVE AND COMPETITIVE SPIRIT

While many developed experimental new ways to address the production of houses, trying out
various materials and technologies, in other cases the endeavors would benefit from a solid financial
support by major industry players. Anyhow, it would stand a strong linkage to the media, promoting
the buildings, bringing them closer to the public. Publications such as the American Builder, the Building
Developer or the Popular Science magazine, would contribute not only for advertising houses, but also
for a myriad of products or ideas, towards not only a consumer, but also an inventive audience.
Indeed, the American prefab industry is too a story of remarkable inventors developing their often
commercially non-successful experiments which nonetheless have stood for their innovative, out-of-
the-box ideas, and with it contributed to set a more competitive ecosystem from where bigger players
would arise.
In 1906, Thomas Edison starts building his Single Poured Concrete Houses. In 1927, Robert Tappan
designs what is arguably the first steel-framed house, which would be reported in New York Times
edition of November 7, 1926, and latter publicized in a March 1928 issue of Popular Science. That same
year Buckminster Fuller introduces an early concept of his Dymaxion House. In 1931, Albert Frey and
A. Lawrence Kocher debut the Aluminaire, the first lightweight steel and aluminum house in the US.
Nonetheless, prefab industry was slow to expand, and it would take the Great Depression, and a
subsequent impetus to stimulate the economy, to develop real interest in mass prefab in the US. The
house industry began following Ford and Taylor’s secrets, and depression fostered a climate in which
factory production seemed the most viable option.
Thomas Edison’s Single Poured Concrete Houses begun in 1906 as an experiment to expedite the
products of his cement plant. After a financial disaster of its cement plant, Edison announces he is
going to create its own cement demand by making his houses to produce in a large scale. These would
become no less of a mistake, as they would reveal to be technical and financial failings. With probably
as much ingenuity as ingenuously, Edison is one of the first designers to imagine that concrete could

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be used to construct an entire house repeatedly, without a single secondary building material. A con-
tinuous mold that formed walls and floors alike with designated voids for windows and doors
assembled in the construction site. A specially designed rotating kiln on wheels with a hydraulic ver-
tical pump would then feed the wet concrete mix through a funnel-like opening at the top of the
mold. The challenge of maintaining a requisited homogeneous mix through each layer proved
nearly impossible for Edison and his team and led to severe cracking in many of the houses. The
houses had persistent problems in the following years, yet the ultimate demise of the scheme, in
1919, was more likely due to the limited interest of clients273.
Another example, the construction of a model house in the Jamaica-Hillside area of Queens, New
York, by the architect Robert Tappan through the Jones & Laughlin Corporation, made news in The New
York Times. It was news not because of the house itself, but because the Jones & Laughlin Corporation
was a steel company, not a timber company. Between the Jamaica-Hillside House in 1926 and the Big
Crash in October of 1929, a few companies and architects pushed steel technology in house con-
struction to higher levels. The Jamaica-Hillside House was advertised as being fire proof, and con-
cordant with an increased concern with safety and sanitation issues, in a typical 1920s appeal to the
language of Progressivism. It was not until 1928 that the American Builder magazine began to make news
of the steel trend. However, when the subject was first mentioned, it was with a paid two-page article
by Walter Bates Steel Corporation (WBSC) of Gary, Indiana, not with Tappan. According to Walter
Bates, the steel houses were safe and sanitary, its cost was approximately the same as timber-framed
houses, but with better quality and lower insurance fees. In the same year, American Builder mentions
the activities of contractor C. H. Dexheimer, attracting the attentions with his steel-frame house con-
struction in Toledo, Ohio. However, it was not until Steel Frame House Company (SFHC) entered the
business, backed up by a large steel manufacturer, that steel houses would begin its large scale pro-
duction, with the steel-frame technology coming to dominate residential construction by the fall of
1928. The company’s Shaffer House was selected while in steel skeleton stage as cover of the American
Builder in November 1928. SFHC was a subsidiary of McClintic-Marshall Corporation, which at the time
was sold out to Bethlehem Steel (in 1931), which was the second largest structural steel manufacturer in
the US, only outdone by American Bridge Company (subsidiary of US Steel). In this steel-frame house
construction inceptions, a silent competition, with advertisements and paid articles, was occurring in
the backstage to see who would first hit the press (and provoke greater stir). Such is expressive of
the aura of excitement surrounding the steel-frame house construction in the late 1920s, which
naturally would too be used as a vehicle to display other breakthroughs in residential building274.
Regardless the seeming widespread interest in steel frame houses, there was a certain distrust
climate on the use of steel, motivated either by architectural, economical or psychological reasons.
Companies made a considerable investment in the promotion of their products, educating the public

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opinion, architects and entrepreneurs to the range of advantages of the new technologies, with articles
and advertisements either in specialized or popular newspapers and magazines, as The New York Times.
As expressed in the pamphlet on Henry B. Neef House by Gate City Iron Company the use of steel in
house construction “is a revolution in home building methods the public must see to be convinced”275. However,
not everyone was convinced. If the economic argument could be straightforwardly set, needing just
houses to be cheaper, the psychological reasons related with an industrial-like aesthetics were harder
to overcome, and would become the most visible part of the installed doubts. A conflict was partic-
ularly set between what was a popular image of the American home and what were some of the
aesthetical new visions which some of these new proposes carried. Eventually, the economic down-
turn derived from the 1929 crash would affect residential architecture, no matter what material or
aesthetics was used in its construction, contributing to at least set apart the aesthetical mistrust related
with steel construction.

2.6.6 NEW AESTHETICS AND THE MASSES

A repeated argument by steel house manufacturers in the late 1920s was that their technology in
no way held up the architect’s or owner’s aptitude to achieve their design goals, regardless the style.
The numerous examples of steel framed houses rendered in popular style of the day, the Period/Tudor
Revival, were a solid argument to convert those fearing a certain industrial aesthetics connoted with
steel. What truly mattered for the companies producing houses was business, and in that sense, any
style would be good as long as the client bought it. Despite the business perspective of the companies,
not everyone in this period was so conformist in what concerned style. By 1927, Richard Neutra had
begun the Lovell House in Los Angeles, a lightweight prefabricated steel house that would become an
architectural landmark276.
The European vanguard experience of the modernist movements, the debate of the housing prob-
lem, and an aspiration to reach building technologies that would be more efficient, were late to touch
the architectural forums in American shores. Such would first notably happen when Henry-Russell
Hitchcock and Philip Johnson organized the 1932 MoMA entitled The International Style: Architecture
since 1922. However, the International Style did not have a particularly great impact in the USA house
building industry, as the established catalogue companies were enjoying success with their products
and hence there was no reason to embrace the new modernist aesthetics. However, it would have a
tremendous influence in USA architects, with impact on the course of architecture over the following
decades277.
Propelled by the economic mood, in 1932 the Harvard-graduate architect Howard T. Fisher es-
tablishes the General House Inc. The company sold a kind of design, building coordination and assem-

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bly service, with the components produced by third-parties, including the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Com-
pany, General Electric or Pullman Car and Manufacturing. The business model targeted the middle class.
Technologically it used pressed steel and standardized elements. The several model houses produced
by the company, mirror Fisher design vision, where “the final decision in the matter of design will of course
depend on what the public wants (…), but in everything else the public has shown a preference for the best in modern
design, and I doubt it will pay extra for fake imitations of the past when they buy their own house”. Fisher’s beliefs
would ultimately prove wrong, as noticed by the larger numbers of houses produced in dated styles.
Nonetheless, other companies such as the American Houses Inc., the American Homes or the Homosote
Company would make their contribution in pursue of Fisher’s vision278.
In 1932, the architect Robert McLaughlin of American Houses Inc., unveiled a prototype directed to
the low-cost housing market, from which he would develop the brand of prefabricated houses known
as American Motohomes. With a steel frame structure, the houses ranged from a simple four-room lay-
out, to a six-bedroom, four-bathroom, and two-car garage layout, promising “durability, beauty, economy
and convenience”. However, the flat roofs and the geometric outline, subtly referenced to the International
Style, would not appeal to the masses, and the company was forced to abandon the concept for more
conventional styled houses279.
In any case, the need for housing noted around the WWII would indirectly create the perfect
conditions for a wider acceptance of the Modern aesthetics. The geometrical shapes showcased in
the 1939 New York World Fair, illustrated the pronouncement of the supremacy of the Modern.

2.6.7 IMAGINING FUTURES (THE 1933 CHICAGO WORLD FAIR)

The Chicago Century of Progress World Fair, in 1933, would stand as a milestone of a new spirit. As
the US were coming out of the Great Depression, the Chicago fair opens with a section dedicated to
progressive housing prototypes meant for replication. The houses displayed an eclectic variety of
modernist approaches, planned by leading USA practitioners. The fair suggested that America, de-
spite the Depression, was well on the way towards becoming a consumer paradise. Numerous build-
ings and exhibits drove the message that cooperation between science, business, and government
could pave the way to a better future. Americans just needed to spend money and modernize every-
thing from their houses to their cars.
The featured homes revealed synthetic building materials and anticipated a future where new elec-
trical devices such as dishwashers or air conditioning would be common household items. Many
houses were commissioned and built, with several companies attempting to create aesthetically pleas-
ing houses combining both modern technology and futuristic design. While some used unconven-
tional materials, others were more traditional, yet included built-in modern appliances. The Good

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Housekeeping Stran-Steel house, by the Good Housekeeping magazine and Stran-Steel Corporation and de-
signed by the architectural firm H. August O’Dell and Wirt C. Rowland, Architects, as well as House of
Tomorrow and Crystal House, by the builder George Fred Keck stood out for diverse reasons.
The Good Housekeeping Stran-Steel joint venture proposed a house that ought to be fireproof, pre-
fabricated, and affordable to the average family. Structurally it was built of steel and baked iron
enamel. The baked iron enamel modular panels cladding the steel skeleton were until that moment
entirely unknown to the realm of housing. The steel frame consisted of newly designed steel beams
developed by Stran-Steel. These were the first such beams to have greater flexibility than wood beams
while also being lighter and stronger, each beam connecting to the other by interlocking joints rather
than on-site welding, which would have increased cost and assembly time. A specially designed nail
penetrated the girders and held both the wallboard and exterior enamel panels in place.
The House of Tomorrow and Crystal House, two glass house prototypes, stood out the popularity since
together they would be toured by more than 750,000 visitors. It somewhat anticipated the engineer-
ing-oriented direction of later, Miesian influenced, Chicago architecture. House of Tomorrow was an
eye-catching, three-story, twelve-sided structure built on a steel frame, which took advantage of pre-
fabricated components280. The house had central heating, air conditioning, and window-shading de-
vices to control the level of incoming light. Keck used it for his four-point manifesto: (1) open plan
in relation to cost effectiveness; (2) the house as the servicer to its inhabitant, not vice-versa; (3) the
health of passive heating and the modulation of natural light; (4) the need to design within the bound-
aries of mass production without relinquishing the ‘opportunity for individual expression’ tastefully
and affordably. Crystal House too took advantage of innovative prefabrication elements, and would
be erected in just three days. Nonetheless, its aesthetics seemed a bit too radical for the average buyer.
As Keck said “probably the most important function of the Crystal House was to determine how a great number of
the people attending the exposition would react to ideas that entirely upset conventional ideas of a house”. While the
house did succeed on that level, it was not a commercial success and was never replicated. Keck
would have to sell it for scrap in order to pay the bills. As to the House of Tomorrow it would be sold
along with six other houses to a Chicago real-estate developer281.

2.6.8 AROUND WWII

It is understandable that design innovation was not a major concern when housing was urgently
required, as it occurred in the post Great Depression and around the WWII. To improve the state of
scarcity, government agencies stepped in, contributing with legislation and initiatives such as inform-
ing the public about mass-produced housing or sponsoring low-cost housing demonstrations. De-
spite the efforts, between 1935 and 1940, prefabricated homes accounted for just less than one per-
cent of the total national production in that period.

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 World War II would bring postwar conditions for advancements mainly marked by business im-
provements, rather than by technique. Events such as the Veteran Emergency Housing Act (VEHA),
that gave a mandate to produce 850 000 houses in less than two years, would contribute in the rise
of prefabrication housing companies over the course of a decade282. The late 1950s, early 1960s,
period known as baby boom, would provoke extended demand in later years, namely in early 1980’s283.

2.6.9 PREFAB BUSINESS TODAY

The types of homes people in the United States live in have changed over the 60-year period from
1940 to 2000. However, percentage of single-family detached homes has endured steady during that
period, in around 60%. Since the time of the latest census, in 2000, single-family detached homes,
together with the mobile-homes, presented a consistent tendency of 80% and above in house own-
ership, contrasting with the tendency of flats in apartment buildings of around 10%284.
Weather in wood or steel, stick framing is today still, as in the early balloon-frame and the catalogue
kit-of-parts, the most common type of housing prefabrication in the US. The underlying principles
remain the same: it requires less knowledge and less skilled labor; it is a comparatively forgiving and
easy-to-correct system, even after construction. Classical timber-frame construction that, with its
huge, unpractical logs, had given its place to stick framing, is currently of commonly observable use in
high-budgeted constructions. In this case, the social body sustaining the system is motivated primarily
by aesthetics and social valuation, rather than by economic or technical efficiency.

2.6.10 NOTABLE ARCHITECTURAL INCURSIONS ON PREFAB

Around this period, the aesthetical debate surrounding prefabrication finds new proposals from
the architectural side. Several remarkable architects stood out for their groundbreaking contributions.
Among these stand Buckminster Fuller with Dymaxion, Richard Neutra with Lovell House, Albert Frey
with Aluminaire, Frank Lloyd Wright with Usonian, or Walter Gropius and Konrad Wachsman with
General Panel Houses. Although not always successful business-wise, their innovative designs would
influence generations up to the present. The latent, unfolding conflict between the conservative spirit
embodied in the ‘aesthetically safe’ business choices, avid to widen clientele, and the architectural
proposals, avid of ‘risky’ experimentation, reaches a peak in this period. Such is a result of a progres-
sive American spirit, expressed in the visionary minds of Buckminster Fuller or Frank Lloyd Wright,
but such is also the result of the exile of brilliant European minds that had had a firsthand contact
with the Modernist way, bringing these new ideas to the US.

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2.6.10.1 Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller starts investigating housing in the 1920’s, as he became aware of “the chaos in
the building industry”285. His focus was in designing appealing and practical houses. Fuller believed that
a good house could be produced as systematically as a good car, and that a factory made house had
the potential to change the way people lived across the globe. Fuller implies that homebuilding was
no longer to be the work of architects or builders, but of machines and an ever-industrializing global
economy. In 1927, Fuller introduced an early concept for his “building machine”, the Dymaxion House
at Chicago’s Marshall Fields department store. The systematization of the construction was the main
objective behind this project, but it also anticipates the efficiency concerns by decades, by adopting
mechanical systems that vastly reduced the use of resources, making it environmentally wise. The
house hosted a hexagonal plan and was held together by a tension suspension from a central mast.
Such structural configuration had a twofold purpose. On the one hand, it radically minimized in-situ
preparations, while it enabled ease of assembly, disassembly, transport and reassembly. On the other
hand, the principle, which made use of lightweight materials, enables a spatial maximization, while
minimizing surface area, and hence contributing to minimize material use, making it resource effi-
cient. Both materials and construction system were designed to take tension forces. The house
weighted a mere 2720Kg, which eased its transport and deployment. Spatially, in the hexagonal plan
evolving around the mast there was a living/dinning room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a library
and a roof sundeck. Fuller mastered all technical aspects. However he would be unable to harvest the
public taste. The Dymaxion never went into production, which is a subject of continuing debate. The
inflexibility of the system to adapt to households of varying sizes, programs, economical means is
often cited, as is the disregard for site specificity and any contextual architectural idiom, not to men-
tion a general fear of modernist forms for houses. Fuller, however, would not be deflated, and after
World War II he would continue to develop other Dymaxion technological concepts, including a fully
equipped modular bathroom and even a three-wheeled car286.
In 1944-46, Fuller introduces the Wichita House, a house with a lightweight, round, standardized
aluminum structure, an update of the Dymaxion House. Only two were eventually built. With the
booming economy of postwar America, Fuller saw renewed potential to revisit the Dymaxion. The
shape of the house was refined from hexagonal to hemispherical with a monocoque dome and a
ventilator at its cap. Rather than being suspended, the Wichita House sat just a few inches off the
ground. The central mast was simplified, retaining only its function as a utility core. Dymaxion's pa-
tented bathroom was also added to the layout. The critical reaction to the prototype was significantly
more positive. The gentle curves created a more satisfying interior flow and the palette of finishings
on the inside were better constructed and more refined. The Wichita was intended to be a ‘dwelling
machine’, and Fuller pursued this notion in lectures and writings, suggesting that industrial design

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and architecture had never been more compatible. In the end, the Beech Company decided not to pro-
duce the Wichita House, convinced that, despite its reception and improvements, the public was still
not prepared to inhabit a machinelike object. Like the Dymaxion, the Wichita House would enter the
annals of replicable utopian homes that would never see the light of day.

2.6.10.2 Richard Neutra

The Austrian émigré Richard Neutra would experiment with prefabrication around this period.
With the enthusiastic approval of his clients, he would even use two of Fuller’s Dymaxion bathrooms
(only a total of nine were actually built) in his Windshield House, in 1938. However, it was with the
Lovell House (1927-29), designed for Lovell family in the hills of Los Angeles, that Neutra would
primarily gain recognition. It is also through it that Los Angeles architecture first became widely
known in Europe. The house is an early example of the International Style in the US, with its clean,
clear-cut surfaces, its wide windows opening up to the views. It is claimed to be the first house in the
US using the kind of steel structure that is typically found in skyscrapers. The structure was prefabri-
cated in sections and transported by truck to site. The lightweight structural elements of floors and
ceilings were also welded in factory. The prefab processes involved resulted that the structural skele-
ton was erected in forty hours. Additionally, the construction had some rather interesting particular-
ities, such as the use of tension cables, either to tie the structure to the rocky cliff, or the cantilevering
balconies suspended from the roof frame, or the use of gunite, a kind of sprayed-on concrete in the
external walls. Neutra’s architectural philosophy emphasized man’s relationship to nature, in an aes-
thetics that merged the prefabricated and industrial building like materials with a natural ambience.
His fellow Austrian Rudolph Schindler would also share a common philosophy, although not focus-
ing so much in prefabrication methods. In any case, both their works would render great influence
in what came to be the California modernism.

2.6.10.3 Albert Frey

The Swiss born Albert Frey would too be an influential figure in the brought about of a discourse
which merged together industry and nature in a new aesthetics. The desert houses House Frey I and
House Frey II, as well as in his influential In search of a living architecture book (1939) were some his most
remarkable expressions such synthesis. However, what primarily brought him visible in the architec-
tural scene was his more radical Aluminaire house (1931), designed and first built years earlier. The
experimental house, was conceived together with A. Lawrence Kocher, with whom Frey shared ideas
on the prefab construction methods and on the modernist aesthetical influences, and would bring
international recognition to both architects. Aluminaire was first built in 1931, at the Grand Central
Palace in New York, for the 45th annual Allied Arts and Building Products Exhibition of the Architectural
League. The house was built with the latest materials and technology in the industry, prefab to spec-

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ified dimensions. These were supplied by great companies such as the Pittsburgh Plate Glass and Alu-
minum Company of America, the Aluminium Company of America, the Westinghouse, or the McClintic-Marshall
Corporation (Bethlehem Steel). In exchange for publicity, these companies donated the materials and
offered their services. It became the first house entirely built of steel and aluminium and glass in the
US. The materials gave it an unseen metallic, clear-cut, modern style, which would not everyone
attending the exhibition enthusiastically assimilated, nicknamed in expressions such as ‘home canned’
or ‘house rack’. Externally, it was coated by panels of corrugated aluminum and reinforced insulation
board; the window and door frames were in steel. Spatially, the ground floor had a garage and a
technical compartment, besides the entrance and access to staircase. In the first floor there was a
double height living room, a dining room, kitchen, master bedroom, bathroom and stairs. The upper
floor had a library, a bathroom and a partially covered terrace. Closing the exhibition, the house was
purchased by architect Wallace K. Harrison and moved to Harrison’s property on Long Island for
use as a weekend retreat. The house was dismantled in just six hours and all the pieces numbered to
facilitate the new assembly. From this date the house knew several locations throughout the years.

2.6.10.4 Frank Lloyd Wright

By this period, Frank Lloyd Wright also was designing his Usonian houses. Besides the constructive
systematization, typical of Wright’s buildings, a few variant proposals of the Usonian envisioned pre-
fabrication and even precut to self-construction methods. These were developed over a modular grid
system, which allowed design flexibility, since each design was unique, while unifying the different
building instances. Anyhow, repeated elements and standard details contributed to control costs.

2.6.10.5 Marcel Breuer

In 1943, Marcel Breuer designs the prototype for the Plas-2-Point House. The house’s plywood
substructure was to be given a thin coat of liquid plastic, a novel take on sealants that would render
the entire structure more durable and easier to clean. The structure touched the ground in two points
only, anchored to foundation blocks that eliminated the need for an expensive grading or a full foun-
dation work. This greatly decreased the amount of time necessary to assemble the house. A massive
spinal girder connected the two points from which radiated a tapered truss system - inspired by the
trussing of an airplane wing. Vertical posts supported a second spinal girder for the ceiling Modular
plywood panels could be configured in variations to form the roofing, flooring, and interior wall
divisions. As with the Yankee Portables, the Plas-2-Point was pitched as postwar housing to officials in
Washington, D.C., but the project would never get off the ground, feeding Breuer's increasing frus-
tration with the inability of architects to break into the prefabricated housing market in the United
States. In Breuer's eyes, the future of the prefabricated house would unfortunately rest within the
hand of “commercial fabricators who don't bother with architecture”287.

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2.6.11 CASE-STUDY HOUSE PROGRAM MEDIA LEGACY
Aside some negative connotations, prefab has in many architectural circles become synonymous
with a somewhat modernist looking, commonly portrayed by detached dwellings set in glamorous,
idyllic, landscapes. In brief, what is depicted are houses representing an idealized living inspired and
inspiring all sorts of popular items, a place where the objects of consumption, from art to furniture,
fuse with the house itself: architecture as a design product piece to show and to consume.
A classic example is the famous Case Study House Program (1945–1966)288, which would produce,
in these terms, paradigmatic houses as the one designed and dwelled by the Eames couple. It all
started in 1944, when John Entenza, editor of Arts & Architecture magazine, publishes What is House?
in the July issue, introducing the Case Study House Program and presenting views for modern prefabri-
cated housing. Between 1945 and 1949, Charles and Ray Eames design Case Study House #8, initially
with Eero Saarinen, in Pacific Palisades, California. The house used industrially-produced component
parts, and was part of the Case Study House program.
Overall, the program oversaw the design of 36 prototype homes, and sought to make available
plans for modern residences that could be built easily and cheaply during the postwar building boom.
It generated designs that would greatly influence the modern home and particularly architecture
during the program’s existence, and so remaining to some extent today, given, for instance, the great
amount of publications dedicated to it that are still being made these days.
This example would be a great contribution in setting a sort of new pop culture founded archi-
tecture, currently manifested in a multitude of press and web based publishing’s dedicated to it. These
are increasingly fused to the point of no-distinction, where virtual representations are at times hard
to decipher from real proposals. There is however another additional effect, that is, as consequence
of our times and technological development, buildings are, or can now be more industrialized than
ever. It is thus with little surprise that sometimes the phenomenon of the Case Studies is followed.
In 2000, Dwell Magazine289 emerged as a pop culture modern chic magazine for architects, designers,
and consumers. Senior Editor at the time, Allison Arieff, and Bryan Burkhart wrote a case-study
book, Prefab, which featured a history of prefab dwellings by architects and others from the industrial
revolution forward. One of the greatest contributions of Dwell was a competition held in 2004, calling
for a 2 000ft2 (~186m2) dwelling under $200 000. Although with different contours than the Case
Study House Program, it a gave visibility to a new approach to prefab housing.
More recently, two exhibitions marked the pace of a renewed architectural interest in prefab
houses: Some Assembly Required: Contemporary Prefabricated Houses, curated by Andrew Blauvelt and also
supported by the Dwell magazine, held in the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 2006-2007290,
and Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, curated by Barry Bergdoll and Peter Christensen,
held in the MoMA in New York City in 2008291. The MoMA show was arguably one of the most

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thorough collections of history, theory, and practical thought on prefabrication and housing ever to
be presented in one setting, taking modern prefab to a higher level of art and a wider audience of
designers and design consumers. The premise on both exhibits was that the current resurgence of
interest in prefab is owed to recent developments in digital technology. The idea is that industrializa-
tion with customization could potentially make the prefabricated dwelling commonplace, offering
both variability and predictability.
However, while these exhibitions, especially the latter, brought a fresh insight, bringing prefab to
a large audience, they nevertheless made quite visible the fact that design culture seems often too
attached to stylistic discussions on prefabrication in architecture, which is often portrayed in the
magazines, blogs, and coffee table books. Discussions on this field are only seldom made more mean-
ingful on what are the opportunities and challenges, namely on issues housing affordability and sus-
tainability.

2.6.12 MANUFACTURED HOMES FROM AMERICA

The mobile homes are part of the heritage of a culture of impermanence in the USA, sharing a
long tradition in the housing panorama in this country. The rise and development of the industry in
America shows a shift from recreational use to permanent housing, but also portrays aesthetical and
technological national trends. The need for rapidly constructed houses in the post-WWII would cre-
ate perfect conditions for the appearance of an US exclusive type of house—the manufactured home,
which comes in the lineage of the mobile home. Built on a chassis and transportable anywhere, these
houses have the great advantage of following a less demanding code than the rest of housing and
construction in general. Many companies that began as recreational mobile trailer manufacturers
shifted into producing permanent mobile housing. Despite tending to be disregarded by society and
architects, in the year 2000 they accounted for some meaningful 7.6% of the total households in the
US, which is an incredible figure for a type of house that only began to exist in considerable numbers
in the late 1940s292.
Their basic technology seems somewhat primitive, but it is a highly developed product, with a
large ballast of innovation. Sharing much of the innovative spirit of the automotive industry, the
companies building mobile homes can have changes in their products every year in their various
home brands, with technical improvements, enhanced insulation methods, improved house appli-
ances and so forth. However, despite a different color or finishing material here and there, improve-
ments in the appearance of each home model are rare. In the case of the Palm Harbor, a mobile
home company employing 450 people in its factory, there is a product development team and floor
layout creators, although none with architects involved293.

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 In its inceptions, the continuous development of the manufactured homes has begun following
the come into being of a mature automotive market—and corresponding roadways—and the need
for affordable shelters, either for tourism/vacationing, or eventually even as a (im)permanent afford-
able house to live in. By the 1920’s, vacationing families stocked their automobiles, and hit the road
around the country in their vehicles and trailers, as part of an auto-camping trend. Using their vehi-
cles, enthusiasts escaped from a civilized America, aspiring a return to nature and embracing a no-
madic spirit of exploration, if only for their vacations. Some formed specific tourist associations,
where to qualify they had to live in a tent, converted car, a trailer or a temporary hut. In an early stage,
it was mostly a do-it-yourself business of car conversions—ranging from simple car adaptations to
the most sophisticated trailers, with doors, windows, cooking spaces, beds, and so forth. Eventually,
from the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, a whole industry developed around it, with business-
men and automotive companies entering the market using mass production methods. It is when the
trailer coach adopted its iconic streamlined image, as depicted in the classic and shiny aluminium-
-made Airstream. With the Great Depression, these symbols of freedom and joy became one of the
few home options for the poor and unemployed.
The trailer gained respectability during wartime, arising as temporary housing for the military and
migrant workers of the military supplying factories. It was no longer about a nomadic way of life, but
affordable (and patriotic) housing in its own right. However, the government regarded them as tem-
poraries. In 1943, the National Housing Agency set minimum standards for war workers housing, and
trailer homes did not comply. As a result, after WWII, surviving manufacturers attempted to link
their products back to their travelling roots, stressed by a sleek, streamlined automotive design. How-
ever, people had got used to live in their affordable trailers, and a streamlined look was not congruent
with the domestic. However, the main practical issue had to do with the 8ft (2.4m) width restriction
by road authorities throughout the country. These posed layout problems, since there was no room
for a corridor, thus rooms had to be accessed in succession. Extensions were possible, but normally
they were expensive, hard to use and often struggling with weathertight problems. The first 10ft (3m)
wide trailer appeared in 1954, manufactured by Elmer Frey’s Marshfield Homes. The ‘ten-wide’
marked a historical shift between the house and the vehicle. These could hit the road, but only with
a special permission, and certainly not too often and/or for tourism. It was also built on a chassis,
but now that was only for transporting it to the site, which was in many cases the only site these
houses would ever meet294.
The acceptance by other manufacturers to the new concept would not occur overnight, but it
would definitely change the game, although approval from authorities would not come immediately.
To the ten-wide, succeeded the twelve-wide in 1959, and the fourteen-wide in 1969. Meanwhile, the
mobile homes began to look more and more house-like, and less vehicle-like. There were already

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millions built, when the double-wide—meaning two mobile homes juxtaposed, each built on its own
chassis—was introduced, enabling an enlargement of the house areas. The growth made it apparently
indistinguishable from modular prefab homes, although in fact differing by the existence of a chassis.
Legally this was an important distinction, since as long as remaining with a chassis meant the ‘mobiles’
were exempt from local building regulations, and subjected only to federal regulations, namely the
regulation that became known as the HUD code (Housing and Urban Development code), introduced in
1976. As consequence of these developments, the industry would be split into two. On the one hand,
the streamlined, vehicle-like, touristic ‘mobile homes’, on the other the chassis built ‘manufactured
homes’, which in most cases only travel from factory to site, and remain there their entire lifespan.
In the latter, the tin-foil materiality was gradually replaced by house-like materials, with prevalence of
timber-frame technologies. Anyhow, a social prejudice would persist among these houses, since ‘trailer’
was connoted with poor people. Signaling it, throughout the years the Trailer Coach Manufacturers Associ-
ation changed its name first, in 1953, to Mobile Home Manufacturers Association and again, in 1975, to Man-
ufactured Home Institute, removing all reference to mobility. Notwithstanding, these houses seem to please
their inhabitants, and the lack of other options is not the only reason to opt for these295.
Following the tradition of camping trailers, part of the market ecosystem of these houses is the
mobile home parks, which begun to emerge in the 1950s. While some mobile home parks are designed
to satisfy the essential needs of an affordable market, others are that take it to a more exclusive level,
providing additional services, as golf courses and swimming pools, lining up with a tendency of gated
communities for wealthier people that have a particular occurrence in places such as Florida. Trailer
parks, either the cheaper or the more exclusive, constitute a substantial part of the manufactured homes
market. Nevertheless, still about sixty percent is located in suburban sprawls that extend for miles. For
the affordable market, in many cases the manufactured home has become the best alternative to an
apartment in the city, and many can be found in this immense network of asphalt. In what can be seen
as a subverted—or natural—evolution of Wright’s agrarian vision, these suburbs have houses that range
from the most humble homes to luxury mansions, many of which are mobile and manufactured homes.
The manufactured homes industry has somewhat evolved to an incongruous state. If houses are
desirably to be treated ordinarily in terms of planning, conversely they desirably ought to keep a
reputation of speed and affordability that takes a competitive advantage on their special legal status.
The HUD code demands to keep up with a non-removable chassis, but many manufacturers also
built sited modular homes, whose construction process is in all ways similar, but with the chassis
removed after deployment. These houses dodge the zoning constraints, but fall outside the HUD
code and thus are ought to comply with local building regulations296.
As Davies writes: “the manufactured house (…) is a complex commercial, industrial and cultural system. The
individual houses may seem illogical in their design and easy to improve, but they are only the fruit of the tree. To

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understand them, you have to look at the whole organism with its interdependent networks of suppliers, manufacturers,
transport companies, dealerships and park owners, and at the commercial and regulatory environment that nourishes
it. You have to notice the way that manufacturers benefit from the extended credit offered by suppliers of materials and
components while taking cash-on-delivery from the house dealers; the way that the size of a manufacturing plant is
governed not by the demands of mass production or the economies of scale but by the population of a catchment area
limited by the distance a house can reasonably be towed in one day (anything up to 800 kilometers); the way that the
specialized transport sector of the industry has evolved techniques to avoid ‘empty back hauls’; the way that dealers
generate a critical mass of potential customers by clustering their show-sites together in roadside ‘trailer shows’; and the
way that park owners are able to take advantage of the flexible, provisional nature of their investment, easy to finance
and easy to convert to conventional development should the occasion arise”297.
The manufactured homes have been recognized as an increasingly relevant component of the un-
subsidized affordable house sector. Their affordability puts homeownership within the reach of many
and is perhaps the greatest contributor for their relative popularity, alongside their availability and flex-
ibility298. These houses can be shipped virtually to any place in the contiguous US territory, including
places where it would be hard or expensive to find builders or construction materials supply. Moreover,
given their relatively smaller areas, they typically require less space over ordinarily built homes. Besides,
since they are literally built on a chassis, they do not require foundations, and this allows to site them
nearly anywhere permitted by building codes. On the other side, owners face issues of land tenure, own-
ership and financing, or more vulnerability to hazards. In fact, land tenure is a characteristic that primarily
distinguishes these houses. The earliest mobile homes were designed for mobility and thus land costs were
not included in the purchase, although costs of temporarily sitting them in parks or campgrounds could
occur. Yet, mobile home have become more grounded over time—according to the US census, in 2005
about 60 percent of mobile home owners stated their homes had never moved299.

2.6.13 PATENT YOUR BUILDING

Embodying a competitive American spirit, outstandingly rendered in a run for patent and proprie-
tary rights, in 1882, N. G. Rood secures the first US patent related to architectural prefabrication, a
design for a Portable Summer House300. This is one of the first known examples of a patent call for an
entire house building in the US. For ages, the intellectual property of architects and other actors in the
building construction industry has relied on copyright laws and the like. These laws are known for their
protection of original artistic or literary works, and architectural works, from drawings, plans or models
to the very buildings can be recognized as works subjectable to copyright protection301. As it is known,
the theme has generally witnessed a growing awareness, particularly since the arousal of a digital era,
with plentiful forums of discussion. Anyhow, it is here important to note that the patent protection302
is another way that has been used for property protection in the building industry. Although relatively

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uncommon/unknown in the architectural field, the fact is that not only partial details, but also entire
buildings have been patented, and this has found a particular fertile ground in the US.
Indeed, we have all heard of patenting building technologies, systems, details or products. How-
ever, perhaps few of us have heard about patenting architecture. The issue became more evident
since Apple relatively recent trend of patent registration of some of its stores, or in the least some
architectural components of these stores. However, there is a rich history of previous examples be-
hind it. Indeed, there are plentiful examples of architectural drawings and building designs that can
be found in patents from the 1920s, 30s, 40s or 50s.
The subject raises some perplexities, primarily because it is difficult to assess to what extent we can
patent architecture, and which naturally crosses the issue of architecture as a product. We can patent
structural systems, materials, details, but it is harder to imagine how to patent conceptual strategies or
the look of buildings. We can observe architecture as a language in itself, but it is hard to imagine
copyright infringement when it is about architectural design, because it is in the least difficult to assess
with precision what makes all the parts of a building a copyrighted entity. In one way or another Frank
Lloyd Wright’s, Mies van der Rohe’s or Le Corbusier’s works have been copied, their methods and
approaches adopted/adapted. We can only wonder what would have had occurred if they had patented
their designs. We certainly have to question if that would have made any sense at all, or in the least, we
have to question where the threshold between an original idea and a barrier against progress is.
In the case of Apple, there is an issue of branding, which traverses their products and packaging,
where in the latter can be included the interior and exterior design of their stores. It is about portray-
ing an image that is ought to be consistent with their products, evoking notions such as clean, sleak,
user-friendly or streamlined. Observing the selection and conjugation of materials of an Apple Store,
it is like looking to an architectural version of one of their products. The model has become familiar
to the point that even without any logo or other kind of reference to the brand, that many would
recognize their architecture.
For ages, architecture has been patent-free, that is, open to be built upon, improved, innovated,
and so forth. So what does it mean for architecture when the U.S. Government granted Apple its
first architectural patent on November 15th, 2011 for the design of a store in the Upper West Side
in New York City? The design features an all glass facade and glass canopy, opening the entire
interior space to the street and to the sky. It is bounded by stone walls on either side. The compo-
nents of this design are not necessarily original and the patent, which can be viewed here, only gives
a cursory view of the design, alluding to the materials and assembly that is to be used. It has also been
announced, that Apple plans to build similar models of this design in other locations.

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2.7 Prefabrication of houses in Japan

2.7.1 TRADITIONAL SYSTEMS FROM JAPAN

Traditional Japanese architecture has developed its own particular modes and vocabulary in time.
These have assimilated many influences from abroad, most notoriously from Chinese architecture,
yet tempered with resolute indigenous developments303. Although with recognizable and often ex-
treme differences in size, plan, decoration, age, and historical development, and considering a great
variety of climates charactering the Japanese archipelago, there is a consistent core universally bound-
ing its architecture. The choice of materials is perhaps the most fundamental point, transversally
linking both sacred and secular, magnificent and humble buildings. There is generally a preference
for natural materials, especially of wood304.
Although with different degrees of workmanship and expertise, typically most traditional struc-
tures are made of wood, with plaster and clay for permanent walls, paper for screens, and straw for
mats, wood shingles, or tile for roofs. A main difference from Western, as well as some Chinese
architecture, is the scarce use of stone, with exception of castle foundations, temple podia and the
like. The same is also mostly verified with the structural systems, based on post and beam wood
construction, with thin, non-bearing walls, movable or fixed, disposed in-between columns. Excep-
tions are only found in the thick wood walls, covered or not with plaster, found in castles and store-
houses. In debt to the structural wood systems, the buildings, with few exceptions, tend to present
rectilinear over curved forms.
A great roof is supported by the structural skeleton, which is usually the most prominent aspect
seen from the exterior, occupying the larger part of the visual field, with the slightly curved eaves
extend beyond the walls. In the case of temples and shrines, to support such weight, a complex
bracket system, the tokyō, is used. In domestic structures, simpler solutions are adopted. Aside the
effect, the typical deep eave overhang produces a distinguishing dimness to interiors, contributing to
the building’s atmosphere where a diffused, mellow light darkens towards the ceiling, a dimness that
has been famously described by the novelist Junichiro Tanizaki in his In Praise of Shadows.
The internal spatial fluidity is yet another characteristic of the Japanese architecture that contrib-
utes to a characteristic feel of space. Probably deriving from the typical post and beam structural
approach, the spatial fluidity of the buildings can be observed in the freedom to either partition space
with fixed walls, or with freestanding or removable shoji screens. In the core of the houses, there is
the most important room, the moya, from which the lesser significant spaces derive, in a characteristic
inside-out fluidity. Although permanent walls are frequently used, the distinction between door and
wall is quite flexible, since they are coded to open to the outside elements, swinging up, sliding open,
or even removed, aiding to such fluidity. The overhang protected space of the verandas hence also

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functions as a transitional space, working both as a part of the building as of a part of the outside
world, establishing a tuned dialogue with the surrounding environment. The fluidity of spaces is also
indelibly related with a proportional measurements system developed throughout the centuries. Each
structural element is related by formula to the others through a modular dimensioning system, which
assures harmony within a building and between different buildings. Finally, even in the most orna-
mented buildings, as in the case of Nikkō Tōshō-gū, decoration typically has an embellishment purpose,
rather than disguising any unintended elements of the construction, therefore contributing to main-
tain an overall integrity of the designs.
Many of the traditional examples seem almost like ephemeral structures, and notwithstanding
there is somewhat a sense of frugal beauty. Supported in lean posts, with module regulated, tatami
mat plans, signal of both order and spatial flexibility, rooms connected by removable shutters and
shoji screens, indoor-outdoor permeability, conveying a feeling of interior protection which is deli-
cately balanced with the control of landscaping and view, drawing an almost imperceptible boundary
between building and world. The internal sphere is linked through unnoticeable steps to the external,
in a continuous flow where there is ought to be no more than the required. Everything is designed
to be just exact, no more, no less. Such feeling transported by the Japanese vernacular practice was
an important influence to modern architecture, being appraised by great architectural figures such as
Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius or Frank Lloyd Wright. To a certain extent, more than offering
a way to be mimicked and developed upon, the Japanese way offered a path of conceptual validity
for the modernist proposals.
However, the Japanese tradition has not only been made of the sort of upper-class detached
buildings that the former description configures, and which became so well known in the West. Be-
sides the upper-class detached residences, with their tranquil permeability and serene gardens, there
are also narrow fronted city row houses in traditional construction. The machiya, as they are known,
may combine both commercial spaces and living spaces and usually face a backyard. Constructively,
the systems are identical and similarly age-old encoded to resist earthquakes. Besides both types,
typically stands a kura, a stronger storehouse made to resist hurricanes, earthquakes or fires. Surpris-
ingly, many of these traditional buildings, including the kura, would nevertheless reveal poor perfor-
mance facing the devastating 1995 earthquake305.
These structures are part of the Japanese cultural and architectural essence, yet in a more recent
period of history, the incorporation of its methods has become somewhat abandoned, and slowly has
witnessed its use replaced by wood or steel frame structures resembling the American two-by-four
construction. Aside natural catastrophes and the like, other probable reasons for such outcome has
been simplification of the typically intricate joinery in order to speed up construction and ease mass-
production methods.

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2.7.2 A CONTEMPORARY PREFAB PANORAMA
Japanese prefabrication finds strong roots in the country’s history and culture. People have learned
to think of houses as constructed of post-and-beam frames with infill walls and these frames have
always been prefabricated306. The rich tradition in wood construction is highlighted by the majority
of public preference on these type of houses307. Wooden structures make up about two-thirds of all
the housing stock when classified by structure, but the proportion of non-wooden structures such as
reinforced concrete houses and steel-frame houses, is still increasing308. Unlike some other areas in
the world, prefabrication is generally seen as a good quality-cost combo alternative rather than the
cheap norm.
The big house manufacturing companies make a large expense not only in creating state-of-the-
art manufacturing conditions, but also in promoting and marketing their houses in all sorts of ways.
Some of the major ones exhibit houses as if it was an outdoor car display. The exhibited houses are
made from diverse materials: precast concrete, structural steel, light-gauge steel, and so on. The com-
panies even organize guided tours for the general public or prospective buyers for a close observation
of their prototypes, as well as the facilities where these are produced and tested. Such is the case for
seismic adequacy, which is of a major importance in Japan, greatly influencing the designs, where the
public is invited to witness to their tests. Overall, these selling methods seem to work for the Japanese
prospective homeowner309. For these companies, sales are as an important activity as producing, re-
flected in the investment they make in both. Anyhow, in one way or another, the final customer is
going to pay for all this fuss. On the one hand, customers benefit from production optimization to
get better cost-benefit for their houses. On the other hand, unlike small companies which do not
have the financial support of the bigger ones to deliver big, expensive, advertisement strategies, the
final house bill ends up getting distorted by such, with negative implications for the client.
Housing shortage after WWII was overcome in Japan through intensive housing construction
work. A strong observable characteristic of this effort was tradition holding forces with innovation.
Industry in general witnessed the appearance of innovative production philosophies, starred by the
Toyota Production System310. An outstanding example of achievements is given by Sekisui Company (the
biggest home builder in Japan), that while firmly rooting to traditional house tradition, devised indus-
trial ways to combine standard parts while enabling variety adjusted to the client’s requirements. This
was made while keeping up to economies of scope, necessary to properly run a business, and becom-
ing a pioneer in what latter, since the 1990’s, would be called ‘mass-customization’311.
Japan’s chemical company Sekisui Chemical has, since the 1960’s and in addition to its core busi-
ness, endeavored in building production. Sekisui House and Sekisui Heim are two separate subsidiary
companies with a combined average annual production of some 68 000 housing units. This output is

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inconceivable in Europe through the usual project-oriented approach. In 2004, Sekisui Chemical gen-
erated $7 713 000 000 net sales, of which the residential building sector (Sekisui Heim) accounted for
50.4%. The return on equity was 6.8 percent in the reporting year 2004 with an annual production
capacity of 16 100 buildings (12 270 single-family homes, and 3 840 multi-story buildings in
construc-tion). From 2003 onwards they have developed a zero-cost approach to create a house
with zero utility expense, which currently is around 50 percent of their sales. The approach is
based on the following four principles: air density, highly-insulated design reducing heating and
cooling costs; building integrated, web-based, photovoltaic systems generating electricity during
the day and with surplus to be fed into the grid; highly efficient water heating; extensive use of
night power in all the electrical systems of the building units allowing a positive net flow balance.
The zero-cost concept has turned out to be one of the most important selling points in the Japanese
market. As other com-panies have done (e.g. Toyota Homes), they produce spatial cells in the
factories, which can be used also for the multi-story housing in a steel frame structure.
Passing the critical postwar period, the available houses in Japan would exceed from the house-
holds from 1968 onwards. In 2003, it reached about 1.14 times as many as the total households. The
percentage of owner-occupied housing began to increase in 1998, reaching 61.2% in 2003. In the
beginning of this century, the percentage of detached houses was decreasing, but still was 56.5% in
2003. Despite effects of the global financial crisis, there is however an observable tendency for the
number of collective housing units to continue to increase. The average floor area for newly-built
housing units consistently increased for owner occupied housing and housing for sale. For housing
for rent and company-supplied employee housing, on the other hand, it fell greatly in the 1980s when
land prices rose, and subsequently increased in the 1990s due to the fall in land prices. In general,
housing size is still increasing312.
According to Groák313 the Japanese approach has the following main aspects: the market struc-
ture and attention given to providing customer choice; the nature of housing as a product; the dom-
inance of new-build and absence of a developed market in second-hand houses; a distinct framework
for innovation formed by government and industry, including regulations, and public and private
investment in research and development focusing on production methods and customer require-
ments; the concept of industrialization as a means to customer choice, to maintenance of built quality,
and to flexibility of site operations, rather than simply a means to reduce unit costs; a strong com-
mitment to developing electronic data models of building processes and buildings as products in use,
which could lead to the integration of digital data and its access by a wide range of participants; a
willingness to exchange ideas to help develop the sector as a whole.
Producers are relatively few but extremely big, as the top five ‘giant’ firms make most of the
country’s prefab housing, from where Sekisui House (over 60 000 units/year), Daiwa House Industry

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(around 35 000 units/year) and Misawa Home (about 30 000 units/year) stand out314. Huge manufac-
turers from other fields of industry, such as Panasonic and Toyota, have implemented state-of-the art
housing production methods and are actively in the market315. The manufacturers, or their subcon-
tractors, also make many of the functional components of houses such as kitchens, bathrooms, fur-
niture or windows. Strikingly, in many cases, much work is still done in-situ: interior and exterior
finishing, or plumbing and electrical work (exception for unitized bathrooms and kitchens).
In most cases two stories is the maximum allowed height for wooden buildings in Japan. Other
buildings, such as steel and concrete ones, may have more stories, but they normally stick to tradition,
mostly keeping up to two. Via lifespan estimates, building materials control the taxable value of a
house: wooden houses are considered to have a lifespan of twenty years, and concrete ones thirty
years. This relatively low lifespan of houses when compared to other countries (e.g. 60+ in the UK)
has ensured a regularly recurring housing demand316. However, the Japanese government wishes to
raise the average lifespan of new housing and there is currently discussion about zero energy housing,
100 year life housing, and the increased use of recycled materials. These factors, together with the low
profit margins, are leading many house builders to seek new business strategies317.
Japan has a big house building business and there is a great level of standardization. Generally,
working with a big house builder means clients are stuck with the limited options they provide. To
better optimize production and achieve greater economies of scale, big house companies tend to use
a limited number of component suppliers, for instance in sanitary ware, glazing or doors, with which
they have pre-existent supply contracts with the builders (the final assemblers). Customizing these is
possible and mostly has to do with the type of contract and coordination that is established with the
builder. Alternative suppliers, even in the case of local craftsmanship, can handle quality and price-
competitive solutions. In Japan quality and attention to detail is invariably excellent from major build-
ers to smaller independent builders and subcontractors, and the great market competition assures
good care of price control. However, if a careful handling of these issues is not established first hand
with the contractor risks are, obviously, of an increase in the final ticket price.

2.7.3 THE CASE OF TOYOTA HOMES

From the earliest inceptions of prefab housing, to recent prefab designs, a fundamental idea be-
hind prefab manufacturing has been to use the auto industry as a model for the mass-production of
houses. As other Japanese companies, such as Seikisui House or Misawa Home, the auto-industry giant
Toyota seems to be pushing this idea to its ultimate level, by developing efforts in attempting to bring
together the better of two worlds, design and industry.
The constructive philosophy, as it is possible to understand from the documentation made pub-
licly available by the company, is based on a structure & infill approach. They claim that their approach

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to such constructive philosophy is able to combine a flexible infill with a long-lasting skeleton struc-
ture, used to create spacious, long-lasting, flexible houses. Blending the development of housing-
related equipment with high-level automobile technology is the motto, which requires a strong tech-
nical and financial support by Toyota Housing Corporation and the Related Products Development Commit-
tee318.
Unlike companies such as Seikisu (the biggest house producing company in Japan), at this time,
Toyota Homes seems to have no plans to manufacture for foreign markets, sticking to the internal
market. Although prefabricating housing since the mid 1970s, Toyota made a concerted effort, an-
nouncing on January 1, 2004, that it established a new branch to begin full-scale production of fac-
tory-built homes, gathering some of its disperse companies in this field in one big group, the Toyota
Housing Corporation. The company started in 1975, selecting as home dealers twenty-four auto dealers
in the Kanto, Tokai, and Kinki regions, and beginning production at Toyota Motor Sotoyama Plant and
Kanto Auto Works Yokosuka Plant. In 1976 they would sell 12 houses. Number of houses sold would
first pass the thousand in 1987, with 1 383, the two-thousand in 1991, with 2 258, and the three-
thousand in 1999, with 3 158. When Toyota Housing Corporation was established in 2004, they have sold
4 313 homes, increasing to the 3 936 on the year before. Since then, figures have grown, with a peak
of 5 024 in 2006. Economy’s downturn in the end of the decade, took figures to a lower point of
3 750 in 2009. In any case, they have been growing up since, with 4 137 in 2011. Although with
remarkable number of houses, the overall figures seem to have a neglectable value, the homes com-
pany seems to have been created as a way of diversifying Toyota’s businesses, while testing and make
their expertise evolve in new fields.
The company has transitioned its process into the home market by utilizing their world-renowned
technique of lean manufacturing. Toyota’s innovation of the lean manufacturing process began shortly
after the Second World War. Many of Japan’s industrialists were impressed by America’s speed in
which they could build aircraft and vehicles utilizing the Fordist mass production model of automa-
tion, assembly line, and economies of scale. Taichii Ohno and Shigeo Shingo of Toyota incorporated
the Ford production process with a variety of customized techniques unique to Japanese culture319.
In starting anew with these processes, they could evaluate the shortcomings of the Ford model with
a new critical eye, and develop their own process, which became known as the Toyota Production System
(TPS).
This system has been highly praised and received awards around the globe for its focus on people
through mass customization and utilization of economies of scope. Several industries, other than the
automotive sector, have been using this production model as a basis in which to ground their own
practice. TPS and lean manufacturing have become synonymous with efficient business practices as
found in Lean Thinking320. Toyota Home saw the housing industry as no exception to the principles of

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lean thinking. Toyota has taken 5 of its 14 principles used in auto manufacturing and applied them to
the prefabricated housing market.
These include: Just-In-Time, where each portion of the process arrives just as it is needed to com-
plete the final product; Jidoka, where automation is conceived as having a close human element, im-
portant in prefabrication housing market in order to bring down production cost and improve overall
quality; Heijunka, meaning the inventory is kept low and in constant supply, accomplished by manu-
facturing directly to customer order; Standard Work, meaning not all of the elements that are compiled
to make the Toyota Home modules and finally the completed structure are customized; and Kaizen,
which has to do with the human element in manufacturing, where employees are asked to find solu-
tions as a non-hierarchical multi-field team, focusing on a series of small tested solutions rather than
a macro level fix-all solution, on the quest to produce a quality product efficiently321.
In Toyota Homes, a great deal of the factory production is automated. As in the auto-industry, the
different parts which are brought together in the assembly line can come from different sources,
either in an adjoining plant, or remotely produced, provided either by themselves of by sub-contrac-
tors. In the case of Toyota the steel skeleton is produced in their own factory plants and with a largely
automated system, including the cold-forming for some of the required steel parts, to cutting, weld-
ing, and drilling to latter bolt, screw or pass cables or pipes through where necessary. The two-di-
mensional frames and remaining structural steel elements are then taken to the automated paint shop,
where the frames and remaining elements acquire their solid protective coatings. These finished steel
components resemble pretty much a finished car or truck chassis frames. The whole process, where
robots do a great deal of the work, is sought of to be quality-control monitoring friendly. As with the
steel skeleton, other components, such as panels and boards for walls, floors or ceilings, windows or
kitchen furniture, are previously set fit to seamlessly enter the assembly line.
In the assembly line, the two-dimensional steel frames are the base on where the remaining com-
ponents will be layered on. Two main types of frames diverge in two different assembly paths, the
ones which are to become floor/ceilings, and those that are to be external walls. The floors begin by
receiving their insulation layers, covering most of the steels profiles. Some wood elements, or other
hard and high thermal inertia rigid elements, are punctually placed to later receive the floor boards
which will be screwed to it. There is always a constructive gap between the steel and the boards which
are laid to make the floor. This gap is always filled with such a wood or wood-like sort of material to
later screw and/or glue the boards. After the raw base is completed, it is fully hand-wired, receiving
all the necessary electrical and/or other types of cables. Two of these raw and wired floor plates will
go through an automated system which will weld together, placing a slim steel column in each corner
in what will thereafter become a tridimensional module.

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 The wall frames begin by receiving the building’s external cladding (or its support to be finished
in-situ), which is properly screwed and goes through an industrial paint coating which minimizes
potential water infiltrations through the building façade via the joints and screwed points. After this
stage, the external wall panels are finally joined with the already tridimensional modules consisting of
two floor plates and four corner columns. Layered (wood + insulation) boards are then assembled
through the interior of the external walls. As in the floors, in the external walls there are also gaps left
between the wall’s steel frame and these boards, separating both materials.
Toyota claims that their steel-framed prefabs leave the assembly factory 85% complete. The factory
expedites self-supported, box-like modules, with a bigger or smaller degree of furnishing, depending
on the requirements. In half a day, the modules get stacked into place with a crane, leaving it almost
done. Some of the finishings, such as floor pavement, are left to be made onsite in order to avoid
unwanted elements such as joints visibilities. The company offers various sizes and designs, with an
average family home comprising 12 factory modules.

2.7.4 THE CASE OF ONJUKU BEACH HOUSE BY BAKOKO ARCHITECTS

Bakoko’s Onjuku Beach House (2012) is a remarkable example of use of automated processes in
construction, combining quality and precision with ease and speed of construction. It is located next
to the beach, in Onjuku, Japan, half an hour distance from Tokyo. It is a vacation house for a couple
with intention of becoming a permanent house in future retirement times. Concordantly, the house
program is quite straightforward. The plan is developed in two levels, plus a typical Japanese access
to the roof top, with common living room and kitchen in the ground floor, to which adds a bedroom
and toilets, and a multi-purpose open-space with two different areas in the upper floor. The house
is mostly centered on its living room, which connects all the spaces in the house: it filters the
private zones, connects visually and physically with the upper floor, and relates generously with an
external wooden deck. The geometry of the house is characterized by its trapezoidal shape both in
plan and section, and two volumetric insertions, next to the entrance and wooden deck with a built-
in seat and planter, and on the toilets. The trapezoidal shape gives the house its formal character,
but too is a mode for tridimensionally bonding the spaces together.
According to the architects, “The home’s concealed entrance is served by a Japanese genkan, a porch separat-
ing the home proper from a built-in shed for stashing surfboards and bicycles. This tunnel-like outer porch connects the
gated rear entryway and the wooden deck which incorporates a built-in seat and planter. Timber shutters slide across
the entire southern eave, securely locking-down the home to protect it from the seasonal typhoons. From the road, the
home maintains an intentionally low profile. Its austere stained tongue and groove cladding is sourced from native
Japanese cedar. Returning from the beach, a private outdoor shower leads directly into the tiled bathroom. An intimate
garden provides a tranquil backdrop to the sunken bathtub. The home's dark exterior skin contrasts with its light and

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airy interior. The double-height living space is occupied by a spruce-clad box that supports a loft space above and contains
the master bedroom, WC, and bathroom below. Careful detailing has incorporated the staircase and doors that close
flush to conceal these private rooms. Sitting at the built-in desk upstairs, one can gaze out the sea for inspiration. The
shallow pitched roof is accessible via a ladder extending into a large pivoting skylight. Since the home is intended for
casual entertaining, the loft spaces and a timber-lined lower study double as occasional guest rooms. The home is predi-
cated on passive design principles. Generous south-oriented glazing is shaded by the eaves in summer. Cross ventilation
captures cool sea breezes. Slotted perforations milled into the wooden balustrade promote air circulation and cleanly
conceal mechanical air conditioning units. In winter, the wood-burning stove provides renewable heat energy”.
The simple program, the geometry, or its materials and attention to detail are, however, just the
visible scenario, as the house conceals a peculiar construction process, based on an industrially cut
wooden structural mesh. For the manufacturing process, the precut timber supplier translated the
architectural drawings into a set of schematics, placing symbols on each post-beam junction accord-
ing to each respective type of joint. The plant of the precut timber supplier was located in a former
Hitachi factory, where five workers, along with machinery, produce the structure for 800 to 1 000
houses per year, although with a capacity for up to 4 000. The machinery is completely automated,
taking squared timber and processing it to a stack of pre-carved and numbered timber posts and
beams. The info for each job is inputted through specialized CAM software and the workers’ task
can be summed up in feeding the machines with the correct lumber elements, verifying the correct
section, length or kind of wood is inserted for the programmed carvings. In a first stage, each element
is trimmed to exact length by a big radial saw. Then, the element is moved by a conveyor belt to a
large wheel-like armature with five different centrifugally arranged drill attachments. This spinning
wheel allows the machine to mill the protruding part of the joint onto both ends of each element.
Another part of the machine mills the sockets in the exact required locations of the timber. Addi-
tionally, each element is marked with a unique identification in order to ease assembly when it arrives
in-situ, assuring the quality control throughout the construction process. Finally, the wood is stacked
and prepared for delivery.
The house structure took only one day to erect, and there was only two skilled carpenters working
on the job. Everybody, from the electrician, to the interior decorator helped on erecting the structural
frame. The pre-numbered members were hoisted by crane and fitted together with the help of a large
wooden mallet. For the participants it is a joyous process which resembles the assembly of a large
wooden puzzle. As the carved joints are fit, they are reinforced with steel bolts, providing additional
stability safety. Only very few elements of the wooden trust could not be precut by the machinery
and had to be cut by the carpenters.
Despite recession and shrinking population, Japan continues to build many homes. The workforce
of skilled carpenters is also getting old. In these circumstances, the use of automation seems to be an

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obvious future way. With it, the Japanese builders, renowned for their skill and obsessive attention
to detail, can efficiently achieve millimeter accuracy quickly while delivering at highly competitive
speeds. Time and cost of cutting and assembly in-situ can be greatly reduced, while respectfully car-
rying the ancient, traditional and meticulous, great art of joinery.

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3 LOGISTIC NOTES—CONTAINERS & PALLETS

In some circumstances, the design options may be influenced by the net dimensions of intermodal
containers, the most economic mode for overseas shipping. The net dimensions of shipping contain-
ers are limited, and off-size cargo is incomparably more expensive. Containers follow strict principles
of economy, both in their handling, as in their very construction. In their simplest version, the chassis
is usually a steel frame bolted together and the walls are made of corrugated steel board. There are
many variations, from refrigerated containers, to ventilated or isolated, to detachable sides or tops,
even to flat (collapsible) containers to avoid having to transport empty space, to tank or gas contain-
ers, or the high-cube version (slightly higher), and so forth. Containers are poised to be intermodal,
easy to set up by crane or forklift truck, and easy to transported by truck, train or ship. The consistent
adoption of the ISO container sizes means transport is very flexible, making use of existing equip-
ment already designed to handle international standard ISO containers all over the world. In any case,
size norms such as ISO are not universally adopted, and thus care must be taken in this respect.
The size of an ocean freight is generally referred to as its nominal length in feet. The most com-
monly used international container sizes are 20’ and 40’ modules. Most European companies’ con-
tainers are also aligned to this international system. Nonetheless, the ISO standards recognize several
lengths of ISO shipping container dimensions, such as the 10’, 20’, 40’, 45’, or 48’. There are also the
intermodal air freight containers, called unit load device, which are coded as LD#, and whose com-
patibility between different airplanes varies, e.g. the LD1 is less common since it is designed specifi-
cally for the 747, yet LD3s are more commonly used in its place because of ubiquity. Dimensions
and characteristics of both ocean and air freights are broadly available online, and their dimensions
may vary slightly from manufacturer to manufacturer. Ultimately, a previous contact with the
transport service provider may prove the most effective way to avoid incompatibilities. On Table 1
are shown some reference figures of some of the most common ocean container dimensions.

20′ 40′ 40′highcube 45′highcube

Ext Dim (m) l 6.096 12.192 12.192 13.716
w 2.438 2.438 2.438 2.438
h 2.591 2.591 2.896 2.896
Int Dim (m) l 5.71 12.032 12 13.556
w 2.352 2.352 2.311 2.352
h 2.385 2.385 2.65 2.698
Int Vol (m³) 33.1 67.5 75.3 86.1
Max Gross Weight (kg) 30 400 30 400 30 848 30 400
Empty Weight (kg) 2 200 3 800 3 900 4 800
Net Load (kg) 28 200 26 600 26 580 25 600
Door Aperture (m) w 2.343 2.343 2.28 2.343
h 2.28 2.28 2.56 2.585
Table 1. Common container dimensions.

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 Concomitantly with the use of containers may be the use of pallets. Again, there is no single
standard in pallets sizes. Instead, there are several purposed pallets with diverse dimensions, since a
single standard would have to satisfy multiple requirements that are not easy to satisfy altogether:
fitting in standard containers, passing doorways, or bringing down labor costs. For instance,
companies already using large pallets often see no reason to pay the higher handling cost of using
smaller pallets that can fit through doors. The most broadly used pallet in the world is
the Euro-pallet (800x1200x144mm), also known as EUR-1-pallet or the equivalent ISO1, initially
developed for Eu-ropean railways, with the great advantage of fitting in many doors given its
800mm wide. There are also several derivatives of these, with its own set of ISO standards
equivalents, such as the half the EUR-6-pallet (or ISO0, with 800x600mm), or the EUR-2-pallet
(or ISO2) and EUR-3-pallet (both with 1200x1000mm, but with length in different directions),
closer to the most common American pallet type (40x48 in, i.e. 1016x1219mm). However, the
EUR types have the problem of the fitting in standard containers, being far from optimized.
Apropos, with wide acceptance, it has been developed intermodal containers about 5cm wider,
known as pallet-wide containers, featuring a 2440mm internal width to easily fit two 1200mm
pallets side by side. Again, as in containers, information is widely available online, and offers
between suppliers may vary, and thus dimensions must be properly crosschecked, between the
available containers, pallets and so forth.

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4 MASS-CUSTOMIZATION NOTES

4.1 Overview of mass-customization concepts from a business perspective

As the Toyota example demonstrated, MC is not ‘simply’ a process of improvement and ordering.
For that matter, several studies on MC, developed from a business perspective, have pointed out
likely causes of failures, and recommended practices. One of these studies was conducted by B. Jo-
seph Pine II, Victor, and Boynton. In an article published in 1993, the authors have remarked that,
to successfully implement MC in a business, four characteristics would have to be taken into account
from the very beginning of its implementation: instantaneous, costless, seamless, and frictionless322. In a
subsequent study, published in 1997, B. Joseph Pine II and Gilmore stated four types of approaches
to the MC concept: collaborative customizers, adaptive customizers, cosmetic customizers, and transparent custom-
izers323. Another study by Zipkin, published in 2001, warned for the limits of a MC process, stating
three aspects to take into account, in an integrated manner, by any company considering such a strat-
egy, otherwise with the risk of MC failure: elicitation, process flexibility, and logistics324.
Not every process to create variability implies the development of a straightforward MC. Because
of it, companies and its investors should insist in the development of a business plan, including spec-
ificities in process technologies, market, research and real and potential competitors. Companies
should investigate potential to increase variability. That includes MC, posing the following questions:
to which products a bigger choice might bring added value to the customer; what are in there the key
processes; how flexible these are, and how can they can become even more; how can these be rede-
signed to be more modular or configurable; and which new opportunities do IT’s bring to achieve
variety325.
Despite numerous successful examples, MC has been harder to implement than what was initially
thought, as utterly illustrated by the Toyota example. Nevertheless, MC is not an exotic approach,
with limited applicability. Instead is a strategic mechanism that is possibly applicable to most busi-
nesses, as long as it is properly understood and implemented326. Hence, there is no such thing as a
better way to implement a MC, it is a process, more than a goal, for which, according to Salvador et
al., three fundamental capabilities must be taken into account: solution space development, robust process
design, and choice navigation327. These are unavoidably linked with digital tools, from the management
of the production chain, to user choice, and so forth.
Applications of the MC concept to several industries have become increasingly common, but in
some cases not without some major bumps in the way. Examples of companies such as Amazon or
eBay are widely known. In hardware sales, Dell pioneered a MC system with its direct customer
approach in product choice and configuration. With more or less success, applications are frequent
in textiles, as is the case of custom-made Levi Strauss jeans, or in the shoe industry, as it is the case

139
of the Nike sport shoes, which can be designed by the client in the company’s website. In the auto
industry, the Smart car was precursor with its online configurator, and is currently just one more
example of the plenty in this type of approach. In fact, in more or less subtle ways, most global
companies, selling global brands, have been implementing processes and strategies of MC.
MC can also be a useful concept to have in mind in the production of common buildings such as
houses or even schools, although not losing sight that is typically more of a business related concept,
than an architecturally effective methodology. Nevertheless, some lessons can be taken from it, and
with a discrete perspective of the construction elements, and a process view of the design task, its
application can be regarded as in the scope of an arguable evolution of the architectural scope to the
sphere of the product. LT production methodologies and the IT’s serving the design and production,
have questioned the old imperatives of MP. With such a perspective, typical architectural tools, such
as dimensions and proportions do not necessarily need to be regarded as standardized in order for
production to be efficient, although with their own limits.

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4.2 Some methodological approaches to MC from an architectural perspective
The case studies hereon presented, display two proposals of MC methodologies, Noguchi’s328
and van der Thillart’s329, that have attempted to bind the seemingly exclusive language of business
with the architectural production, particularly in house production.
Noguchi makes a simplified approach to the theme, from a methodological perspective on the
diverse components that can be involved in a housing MC scheme. He considers housing MC as a
function of both services (S) (those coming from the architect, contractor, marketing, and so on, in-
volving interaction with the client) and products (P) (e.g. components or materials). The conceptual
expression is given by MC={S, P}, where the S and P are conceptual expressions that can be synthe-
tized by S={l, p, t} and P={v, e, i, o}. In this case, in S factors are location (l), personel (p) and tools (t),
and in P factors are volume components (v) (those that determine the structure as well as the number and
size of each compartment), exterior components (e) and interior components (i) (those that coordinate both
the functional and decorative aspects that customize housing). These three (v, e and i) are considered
the main elements of the P subsystem. The other, optional components (o), may be heating/cooling
systems, security systems, domotics’, door handlers and other hardware, kitchen appliances, among
others. The referred elements may include sub-categories, as roofing, walls, windows, verandas, as
well as kitchens, bathrooms, storage or finishing.
The MC methodology developed by van der Thillart, first published in 2004, also concerning the
residential sector, refers multiple factors to take in account, such as questions related to project, mor-
phological variability, industrial performance, quality control, IT’s, marketing, and intervenient roles,
among others. The suggested MC model stands on the key-idea that a design concept can create a
virtual kit-of-parts330. These virtual kits are extensible beyond individual projects and can be used in
different locations. Moreover, these virtual kits comprehend all the possible systems that, together,
after the client selection procedures, make a series of different buildings. The systems in this virtual
package have a ranking of levels. Each selection in a certain level adds a system to the system selected
on the previous level. A virtual kit turns into a MC model via a systems organization of the building
in decision levels, having as reference a specific marketing concept, supported by drawing, visualiza-
tion and accounting IT’s. Theoretically, from a virtual kit, we can easily generate thousands of final
variants. However, creating variants is not an end in itself, since production should satisfy strict eco-
nomic conditions. The most profitable of these happens when the number of different components is
kept to a minimum and the resulting number of products variants is maximized, for which con-
nections between components (i.e. the relation element) should be as standardized as possible.
Such variation is optimized through what the author calls the disentanglement processes of the different
systems in the kit. The issue that disentanglement processes try to handle is related with decisions
that may look simple to the consumer may create a very high number of system states for the designer

141
or the contractor to handle, and concomitantly a high number of different connections and of op-
portunities for it to fail. These can be achieved by in introducing morphological transferability tech-
niques331, since an early design stage through geometrical strategies, and concomitantly with attempt-
ing to attain a broad compatibility in constructive connections, so to deepen the OPP, ideally enabling
a free connection of the variable components of any branch in a customer decision tree332.
Finally, this author illustrates how these points can be managed, devising for that purpose a no-
menclature of systems and sub-systems to apply in a housing MC process, where he hierarchically
locates: support (a), envelope (roof and façade) (b), services (c), infill (d) and finishings (e). To exemplify, a
subdivision of the infill system may be developed the following way: Sys (d) infill, Sys (d1) internal
partitions, Sys (d2) internal doors, Sys (d3) kitchens, Sys (d4) toilets, and so forth. By attributing a
proper nomenclature, the control levels become clearer, and so potentially does the clients’ decision
tree, thus increasing the potential of applicability for digital-aided, customer-centered choice pro-
cesses.
Both these works generally reveal a certain closeness with the theoretical tendencies on MC in
economics, and with the theoretical tendencies developed in the housing field, namely, for instance,
the concept of Open Building and the IFD (Industrial, Flexible and Demountable). In these, there is the
underlying idea of identifying different levels of decision observable in a building with different lifecy-
cles, adding to the last also the ability of deconstruction in the lifecycle end, in line with the growing
concerns on the factors of environmental sustainability in construction. Moreover, both these ap-
proaches denote a concern mostly on the construction aspects of the architectural production, on
how to handle a certain pre-designed set of components in order to obtain variability in outputs, and
so on. In both also, it is notorious an assumption of discreteness and modularity, where processes
follow particular hierarchies. This hierarchization comes from a need of structuring and accounting
the processes and sub-processes happening in the development of a MC in housing, and which inflict
in the logistic performance of the building construction processes. Because both come from an ar-
chitectural background, it is evident a focus on the overall design/construction process and its rela-
tionship with the client. However, as earlier observed, for any MC process to be successfully imple-
mented, many other aspects have to be taken into account. Anyhow, from a strict architectural point
of view, these provide already plentiful clues that can be incorporated in any process where variability
and efficient construction processes can be involved.

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IV Epistemological Notes
[A Global Epilogue]
COMPLEMENTARY TEXTS

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144
1 THE PHENOMENON OF GLOBALIZATION
Certainly, in various ways, the debate on globalization is not unanimous. Regardless how it is
defined, the term unmistakably indicates that it has to do with important processes which are bound-
ing the globe differently333. All in all, it is unequivocal that globalization has a fundamental role in our
lives, affecting the formulation of concrete manifestations of spatial and temporal conceptions of our
time.
Globalization has been described as being risen from factors such as deterritorialization, growth
of social interconnectedness, and speed or velocity of social activity334. Its linkage with the evolution
and transformations imposed by economy is conspicuous335. Indeed, global economy was politically
built by deregulation and liberalization mechanisms, decided and operationalized by governments
throughout the world336. Once in place, it does not mean these mechanisms cannot be undone, but
certainly not so easily, as the periods of economic and financial crisis suggest.
Historically, globalization is a process that can be traced back to millennia337. It involves basic
spatial and temporal338 contours introduced by multiple technical artifacts developed throughout hu-
man history, while trading networks, and hence social and cultural ones, were increasingly developed.
From the XV and XVI centuries onwards, a series of events related with the Renaissance period, to
which the voyages of discovery relate to339, are the cradle for the Enlightenment ages and the Posi-
tivist spirit. These manifestations took place as western society secularized340 and are responsible for
a tremendous progress flagged by science and technology. Altogether these would define mankind’s
evolutionary path, with transversal implications in the centuries to come, contributing to the setting
of an industrial machine-driven era, and are major constituents of the Modernity to which, consider-
ing its multiple manifestations, we all indelibly relate to341.
Among other technical breakthroughs, the XXth century would bring the ship container, setting a
global commodity carrying standard, making “the world smaller and the world economy bigger”342, and from
its last decades onwards, the Internet, GPS, and so forth. These contributed to make the process of
globalization an inescapable fact343. As Alvin Toffler344 foresaw in the early 1960’s, after the agricul-
tural and the industrial revolutions, the information revolution, child of the space age, gave birth to
the current post-industrial society, definitely bringing globalization to our vocabulary, setting the pace
for its current status.
Globalization is often grasped empirically, and it is common to see it addressed as if it was a mere
economical phenomenon, though it is broader than that345. If it is unquestionable that, in one hand,
it is associated with growth in transnational companies, trade, technology, or international networks
and communication, on the other hand it bounces back exploitation and immiseration of continents,
peoples and global poverty346. Just as local economies are influenced, and in many instances dominated

145
by giant corporations, national governments cannot make policy and run their countries in isolation
from the rest of the world347.
If the early myth of globalization meant top-down control, as in the early cartographic idealiza-
tions for land ownership of European colonial settlers, such myth is irrevocably put in check348. The
difficult equation of Limits to Growth, first presented in the 1970’s and updated around thirty years
later349, involving available resources, available food, industrial output, population and pollution indicators,
should at a minimum be regarded as a wake-up call to the scarcity of means there is at our disposal,
remembering that globalization is not unlimited and does have a cost; and, as theorized by Marxism,
the capitalist system, the great driving force of globalization, is ultimately unstable, because it cannot
endlessly sustain profits.
It adds what can be called the media effect, as the enormous transformations undertaken make
visible a globalized world that exists much in function of what the ubiquitous social media broadcast.
And, as structuralism indicates, the invisibilities are nonetheless latent, even if not perceivable. There
is a world, the global—of consume, financial, or of show (natural disasters or movie stars)—that is
under the media scrutiny, and a rest of the world—of daily struggle, endemic misery, or alternative
social movements – that is mostly outside the media focus350.
Indeed, many of globalization aspects can be portrayed as representation, where the real gives
place to a new kind of real. Such is what occurs with cartographic representations, which are more
visibly driven from a physical reality, but also what occurs in a simulacra—as in the example of ‘vir-
tual-reality’—or when enhancing the real, producing a matrioska type of simulacra, within the simu-
lacra of real—as in the example of the augmented-reality. For instance, in economic-financial circles this
is every so often represented via the so-called business as usual, a representation system, where, in the
resemblance between real and its representation, it does not matter if things are true or false, real or
simulacra, as long as they keep on going as they always did. As Herod writes, “central to this representation
is the portrayal of globalization as a process whereby other spatial scales are eviscerated – globalization, in other words,
is the delocalization and/or denationalization of economic and political life”351.
An analogy can be driven to the constructed human shared reality, where these fundamental bio-
logical mechanisms are unavoidably mirrored, finding their most visible appearance in media repre-
sentations. As it occurs neurologically352, a number of reasons may contribute for global representa-
tions to lack accuracy, and ultimately fail. But in the very nature of the idea of representation is
embedded the notion of a permanent update in order to adjust to the ever-changing reality(ies), the
same way as speech slowly alters language. Globalization as a representation has outstandingly failed
in certain historical moments. Famous examples in relatively recent history are the media-enacted
political representation of an atomic danger to justify the start of the second Iraq war, or the case of
the late 2000’s financial crisis353. Alternative models for a certain representation are possible because

146
it is always likely that something may have changed, or that something may have been missed: the
error is always human.
With the conception of a probable infinite space introduced in the Renascence the globe could
seemingly be grasped as a finite totality. According to David Harvey, the invention of perspective
introduced individualism, providing “an effective material foundation for the Cartesian principles of rationality
that became integrated into the Enlightenment project. Objectivity in spatial representation became a valued attribute
because accuracy of navigation, the determination of property rights in land, political boundaries, rights of passage and
transportation, and the like, became economically as well as politically imperative”354. Globalization, as cartog-
raphy, has the dual power of inducing an imaginary seduction and work as a rational construction. It
reveals a desire for fulfillment, a dream of universality. Yet, as noted by Christian Jacob, “the map
entered the era of suspicion. It lost its innocence. We cannot imagine it today without an anthropological dimension,
attentive to the specificity of cultural contexts, and theoretically, reflecting on the nature of the object as its intellectual
and imaginary powers”355.
But current global representation systems are far beyond the commonly acknowledge, rationalist
based, cartographic systems, and not exactly always attentive to the specificity of cultural contexts.
Universalism of architectural forms too, if ever seriously proposed, can no longer be conceived other
than in a sort of delusional proposal.
This system of death via simulation processes is a crude, but concise expression of globalization,
highlighting its insatiable tautological nature. Death as, for instance, death of the subject and of indi-
viduality, of the existentialist nietzschean superman, by means of engineered (online and instantly)
simulation of exclusivity, as in to reassure (simulate) the return to its own individuality. Death as
death of local and regional specificities, as to become part of the global branding cogwheel that pre-
sents (represents) itself in a ubiquitous mass (multi)media. Death, like as death of resources, as to
give place to the simulation of a global blending, ever simulating, and ever representing: Caesar’s wife
must be above suspicion’.

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2 THREE CASES OF GLOBAL COLLABORATIVE WORK
Globalization has certainly been serving as a kind of buzzword, attracting significant attention in
many fields, in different contexts, by different people, for different purposes. But architecture has
always been somewhat transnational or global, and its history seems to prove this point. Architecture
has always been the result of collaborations between different actors, with the architect gathering,
combining, organizing. In projects above a certain financial or visibility threshold, it is common to
notice collaborative practices occurring at an international level. For instance, the Sydney Opera House
(1959-73) begun as an international design competition which would be won by a Danish, Jørn Utzon,
with creative references spanning from Japanese or Chinese cultures, to African, Magrebian, Euro-
pean, or North-American and Mesoamerican; the structures were calculated by a London firm, Ove
Arup & Partners, whose founder was Anglo-Danish; the over one-million ceramic tiles cladding the
building were manufactured by the Swedish company Höganäs AB, which co-developed them with
Utzon, and from Sweden shipping them to the building site in Australia.
Another iconic example of international cooperation is the UN Headquarters building in New York
City (1947-50). The complex is too regarded as a functional and symbolic signal of an affirmation of
modernist architecture as a dominant design language of the postwar period. It was designed by an
international architectural team, led by the USA architect Wallace K. Harrison. Coming from all over
the world, the main architectural players, in which great figures such as Le Corbusier or Oscar Nie-
meyer were included, disagreed with one another and collaborated in turns for the design process356.
According to the myth, Wallace Harrison was the ‘bad’ corporate architect who stole Le Corbusier’s
design and made it mediocre reality. In its turn, Oscar Niemeyer affirms that the sketch with the final
solution was his, under the master’s, Le Corbusier, acceptance. Yet the myth has its reversal, as it was
a building that perhaps American would not have thought and European would not have built; a
collaboration not only between architects but between different cultures—of design, construction,
political or ideological—cross-fertilized in a hybrid, authentic archetype of a global modern, Interna-
tional Style.
Cross-fertilization between different kinds of expertise, as it visibly occurred in the Sidney Opera
House is a common fact in architectural practice, as it is the case of the typical relationship of architect
and engineer. Spatial and technical designs are often closely related, but nevertheless require different
skills. There are also other types of fundamental expertise, such as the commercial, which require
additional sets of skills. With different degrees according with the scope and type of project, all these
factors concur for the success of any design. But collaborations surrounding the architectural practice
often are embedded in the very creative process, on collaborative aspects of it. Such was the case of
a particular collaboration between the artist Olafur Eliasson and the architect David Adjaye. A world
renowned artist, Eliasson357 devised an artist’s studio that consisting of a team of about 45 people,

149
from craftsmen and specialized technicians, to architects, artists, archivists and art historians, cooks
and administrators. They work to experiment, develop, produce, and install artworks, projects, and
exhibitions, as well as archiving, communicating, and contextualizing Eliasson’s work. Additionally,
they contract structural engineers and other specialists, and collaborate with curators, cultural practi-
tioners, and scientists. The artist’s works spans all over the world and includes collaborations with
architectural offices, such as with David Adjaye’s studio in the Your Black Horizon exhibition building
for the Venice Biennale 2005: Icelandic artist with practice based in Berlin meets in Venice with
Tanzanian born architect with practice based in London. Examples such as of the Sidney Opera House,
of the UN headquarters, or of Olafur Eliasson and David Adjaye, are just an illustration of the innu-
merous possibilities of finding examples relating the architectural profession in some sort of global
aura. The collaborative nature of the architectural profession is not simply an indicator of its open-
ness, of its seeming predisposition to be positively contaminated. Such is also a notion which under-
mines any delusional attempt to set it as a referential discipline, or set it with a methodological foun-
dation, as it has not one discernable body or structure, yet many shades which render ineffective any
attempt of universalization.

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3 THE BO-KLOK, OR ARCHITECTURE AS BRANDED PRODUCT
According to the IKEA company, the idea for better housing at lower costs was born in 1996.
Apartment construction had more-or-less come to a halt—the demand for newly built apartments
was very high, but no-one dared take the initiative to build specifically for the large number of people
looking for apartments at reasonable prices. The decisive step would take place in a housing fair in
Sweden. Two of the driving spirits behind the concept met—IKEA and Skanska CEO’s—and started
to discuss why all new built apartments were only for rich people: ordinary people should have the
same right to live in new built dwellings adapted to the needs of modern family. As a concept this
was not a novelty. But the firm determination of the proponents, added to a solid financial support,
where key drivers to put the idea into practice.
A dialogue between IKEA and Skanska would soon reveal that both parties were interested in
making a move on the empty market. Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, had long been looking
for a partner in the building industry to help build new homes for the many people. Skanska and its
chairman Melker Schörling, was keen to join forces with IKEA to further strenghten its
aim of becoming the first construction company in Sweden to create a broad product on the
basis of an entirely new approach.
In 1997 the first four residential areas were completed in Helsingborg, Stockholm, Örebro and
Sundsvall. They were all a success, as people were queuing at the IKEA stores to be able to buy an
apartment. That was when marketing teams came up with a system of allocating the demands in order
for people to choose the apartments through their plans, enabling a more transparent buying process.
Up until 2012 almost 4 000 apartments at over 100 locations in 5 different countries had been built.
According to the company, the customer surveys normally reveal that the people living in BoKlok
dwellings think their apartments and the area they are living in are great, and that their monthly living
cost is low and affordable to them.
As with the philosophy used in IKEA’s products, the BoKlok products are straightforward and
designed to attract many people. They include cost efficient and ‘smart’ solutions. Constructively, all
products have a wooden construction. The designs, together with state-of-the-art productions meth-
ods, have been devised in order to guarantee an overall small environmental footprint. In terms of
layout, the open space solution of the kitchen and living room offer the customer flexibility to adapt
the home to their specific needs. The light and airy rooms can be used for different functions at the
same time. The kitchen and some other interior features of the dwellings are IKEA’s products. One
of the design principles used in BoKlok homes is that there should always be natural light when en-
tering a home or a room, meaning that given the sort of modules used in construction, that each
apartment has at least three window directions. The constructive concept is based on large volumes,
standardized prefabricated solutions, and a conscious customer focus from start to finish. The entire

151
process—from the search for land, through detailed plans to the point where the customers move
in—is carefully prepared and documented, ultimately meaning short time-spans from decision to
completed projects.
The large volumes and efficient building methods give financial strength to involve a team of
different competences in the product development phase, ensuring the creation of homes the cus-
tomers want, featuring modern functionality and sustainable materials. The focus is always on the
customers: who they are, how much they can afford to spend on their homes without economizing
elsewhere, and how they want to live. All in all, it is a process departing from a solid constructive
(physical) sphere, which allows a certain degree of user option in the plan layout (spatial) sphere and,
regardless the univocal furniture supplier, a certain degree of freedom in the decorative (ornamental)
sphere, and where, overall, the implementation of mass-customization schemes is transversal.

152
4 HOUSING, A GLOBAL ISSUE
Housing is one of the most basic programs with which Architecture deals with and is probably
the most vastly documented: creating a shelter for man to dwell, Architecture’s primordial act. The
UN millennium report stated that “the greatest challenge we face today is to ensure that globalization becomes a
positive force for all the world's people, instead of leaving billions of them behind in squalor. Inclusive globalization
must be built on the great enabling force of the market, but market forces alone will not achieve it. It requires a broader
effort to create a shared future, based upon our common humanity in all its diversity”358.
This inclusion is far from reached, in fact, recent reports, more than a decade after, point out to
alarming figures threatening the progress of human development and its inextricable linkage with the
environment. Nearly 90 percent of the world population lacks access to modern cooking fuels (C),
80 percent lack adequate sanitation (S) and 35 percent lack clean water (W). Of these, 80 percent
experience two or more deprivations and 29 percent face all three, the worse-case is in sub-saharan
Africa (C 98.3, S 86.7, W 65.2 percent), followed by South Asia (C 94.1, S 86.4, W 19.4 percent), East
Asia and the Pacific (C 75.1, S 62.6, W 30.5 percent), Latin America and the Caribbean (C 54.3, S
41.5, W 24.1 percent) and Europe and Central Asia (C 26.8, S 19.5, W 22.6 percent)359.
This is not a new issue. Indeed, as stated in the Article 25.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family,
including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of
unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his con-
trol”360. More than 60 years have passed and nevertheless issues concerning housing and housing
rights in the context of globalization are far from consensual and we seem a long way from the noble
principles stated in the Declaration361. Concomitant to the issue of housing rights is the often unclear
agenda of political leaders around the globe. According to the authors of a report prepared for the
World Urban Forum III in Vancouver, “Improving conditions and addressing the global housing crisis should be
a high priority for national governments and international donors, but, for reasons that are not clear, it is not. In
many countries around the world, opportunities to achieve economic, social, and civic development goals through housing-
related initiatives are being missed”362.
A UN report on housing (2005) stated that “more than 100 million people in the world’s poorest countries
are projected to be living below the basic subsistence level of a dollar a day by 2015, caught in the poverty trap that is
associated with economic globalization’s dark side. An in-depth study on the world’s 49 least developed countries rejects
claims that globalization is beneficial for the poor, arguing that the international trade and economic system is part of
the problem, not the solution. Accordingly, the current form of globalization is tightening rather than loosening the
international poverty trap. As markets become more entwined, the world economy is becoming increasingly polarized
and the least developed countries, particularly their poorest people, are being left behind. It is important to note that this
also applies to high-income industrialized countries, where a growing number of households are living below the poverty

153
line due to increasing unemployment, and in many cases a simultaneous decrease of social welfare and social security as
a result of reduced public investments”363.
By the year 2030, an additional 3 billion people, about 40 percent of the current world population,
will need access to housing. This translates into a demand for 96 150 new affordable units every
day and 4 000 every hour364. It adds that one out of every three city dwellers—nearly a billion
people—lives in a slum and that number is expected to double in the next 25 years (slum
indicators include: lack of water, lack of sanitation, overcrowding, non-durable structures and
insecure tenure)365. Finally, it is projected that in the next fifty years, two-thirds (approximately 6
billion out of 9 according with several sources) of humanity will be living in towns and cities.
In the light of these smashing numbers on housing globally, it seems inevitable that people, work-
ing within the planning and building of the territory at its different scales, should increasingly focus
their work with what is happening in cities. This means a concern both in the urban processes of
growth, as of strengthening the bonds of the existent ones. But some signal references indicate that
this is far from being an absolute idea, and can certainly have different interpretations.
One of these references lays is an idea expressed in the UN-Habitat report of 2006, where the
current major challenge is to minimize burgeoning poverty in cities, improve the urban poor's access
to basic facilities such as shelter, clean water and sanitation and achieve environment-friendly, sus-
tainable urban growth and development, i.e. cities are and will be crowded and the living conditions
are poor in many cases366.
A second reference arises from the implications of the core-periphery model of the economist Paul
Krugman367, which relates economies of scale and transport costs, establishing that these are a major
determinant of asymmetries between countries or regions. In turn, these may explain the growth of
cities, and particularly the flashing growth of megacities. Nevertheless, possibilities are left open
within the theory for different decentralized forces within the periphery to invert the imbalance be-
tween cities and the remaining territory, bringing to a more balanced development. If in the one hand,
the path towards centralization in major urban centers seems unavoidable, on the other hand the only
way for these to be sustainable implies the opposite.
A third references comes from an idea expressed in October 2011, when Rem Koolhaas, a known
architectural voice of the theory of congestion, probably unexpectedly for many defended a return
to the countryside as a way to the future development. He affirmed that “rural areas are changing more
rapidly than cities”, adding “millions have moved to cities from the countryside. They have left behind a weird territory
for genetic experimentation, intermittent immigration [and] vast property transactions. It’s truly amazing when you
look closely”368. Capital and its great capacity to intervene in different territorial scales and contexts,
using all sorts of strategies, has been transforming what tends to polarize between the global metrop-
olis—taking advantage of capital flow—and the immense marginalized territories left behind.

154
 A true, deep concern on sustainability aspects is and will be a determinant feature in the
development of the inhabited space. It also seems clear that there is plenty of work to be done
towards it, and that opportunities for it should regard the entire territory and not just a portion of
it. Despite the somewhat idealistic character of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City, such seemed
to envision precisely that sort of sustainable future. Nonetheless, alternatives to the growing
urban centers must be searched, wherever they come from. Contemporary society has produced a
proliferation of codes of signification of the city: codes that are fixed in the matter of things,
(testimony of past behaviors or lifestyles still active) and mobile and plural code, which follow the
erratic life of multiple populations temporarily inhabit the various parts of the territory. To recognize
the codes, and code space projected onto the space itself, is their relationship that decides the
allocation of a condition of ‘place’ to a living space. The classic dichotomy city countryside no longer
makes sense. In an age where we google the map of any planetary location instantly, even the notion
of wild nature is gone. Instead, we have to speak in humanized territory, subjected to control,
chartered. If there is an urban heritage that needs to be preserved and fed, there is also the entire
territory which is subjected to the same needs.

155
156
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168
Table of Acronyms

AHP Affordable Houses Project

AIROH Aircraft Industries Research Organisation on Housing
BIM Building Information Modelling
BISF British Iron and Steel Federation
BOM Bill of Materials
CAD Computer-Aided Design
CAM Computer-Aided Manufacturing
CEO Chief Executive Officer
CFS Cold-Formed Steel
CIAM Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne
CLASP Consortium of Local Authorities Special Programme
CNC Computer Numerical Control
DC District Capital
DEWOG Deutsche Wohnungsfürsorgung Aktiengesellschaft für Beamte, Angestellete und Arbeiter
[“Shareholder German Company for the Improvement of Housing for Civil Servants, Employees and Workers”]
DSME Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering
DTI Department of Trade and Industry
EPSRC Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
EU European Union
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GDR German Democratic Republic, or East Germany
GEHAG Gemeinnützige Heimstätten-, Spar- und Bau-Aktiengesellschaft [“Housing Cooperative for Savings and Construction”]
HHI Hyundai Heavy Industries
HUD Housing and Urban Development
HVAC Heat Ventilation and Air Conditioning
ICAT International Congress for Architecture and Town-Planning
IFD Industrial, Flexible and Demountable
IG Independent Group
IMF International Monetary Fund
ISISE Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering
ISNSC International Scientific Networks in Steel Construction
ISO International Organization for Standardization

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IT’s Information Technologies
LCE life-cycle end
LED Light-Emitting Diode
LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
LPS Large-Panel concrete Systems
LT Lean Thinking
MARS Modern Architectural Research Group
MBOM Manufacturing Bill of Materials
MC Mass-Customization
MHI Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MP Mass-Production
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NYC New York City
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer
OPP Order Penetration Point
OSB Oriented Stranded Board
OSM Off-Site Manufacturing
PE Polyethylene
R&D Research & Development
RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects
SAR Foundation for Architects Research
SFC Strategic Forum for Construction
SFHC Steel Frame House Company
TPS Toyota Production System / Temporary Housing Programme
TV Television
UC University of Coimbra
UFO Unidentified Flying Object
UK United Kingdom
UN United Nations
USA United States of America
USSR Soviet Union
VEHA Veteran Emergency Housing Act
WBSC Walter Bates Steel Corporation (
WWI World War I
WWII World War II

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Table of Figures

Figure 1. Diagrammatic representation of patterns of decision and control describing two opposite systems (locally or centrally governed)
as mirror images. __________________________________________________________________________________________ 42
Figure 2. Portuguese prefab houses companies’ profile. _____________________________________________________________ 57

171
172
Table of Tables

Table 1. Common container dimensions. _______________________________________________________________________ 137

173
174
References

1 Cf. Heidegger (2005). comprehensive, but it truly attempts to describe a con- dynamically unfolding unified system”
tinuum of not only phenomena, but also a unity of (Kavanaugh, 2007: 15). “The architectonic of
2 Cf. Toussaint (2012).
substantial particulars (…) (where) Being and Leibniz (…) is commonly thought of as a transcend-
3 Such designates the doctrine of the scien- Unity are One. (…) Aristotle’s continuum encom- ent structure with God at the apex of a complex net-
tific in our knowledge, seen as a method that passes not only the phenomenal magnitudes, but also work of monads, the intelligentia supramun-
enables the coordination of a certain system the limits of time and place; not only the discrete in dana. However, the privileged position of God in the
that is formed under an idea, or generally the mathematics, but the infinite ‘unlimited’ universe as hierarchy of Being can be considered as a “special
art of constructing systems, implying a a sphere. And, in the end, there is no end (nor be- case monad”. (…) The place of Being changes into
whole that is an organized unity and not an ginning), (…) the cycle of generation and corruption a metaphysic without a necessary transcendent struc-
aggregate. is infinitely never-ending continuity” (2007: 69- ture. The ontological structure flattens out in a radi-
As noted by Kavanaugh (cf. 2007), this 70). “(For Aristotle) there are six kinds of change: cal notion of concomitance, leaving God as a special
notion of unity is essential in Kant, as there generation, destruction, increase, diminution, altera- case monad in a system of intersubstantial connectiv-
is the conception of a pure logical corpus of tion, and locomotion. These changes are arranged ity where transcendence is merely a special case of im-
reason. “Ultimately, the concept of the ‘architec- into four groups: substantial change (…), quantita- manence” (2007: 139-140). “For Leibniz, the
tonic’ was borrowed from Kant, albeit with differing tive change (…), qualitative change (…), and local- continuum is composed of monadic atoms that are
intentions. Kant wished to mount an indestructible ized motion or change of place (…). Every change, substances whilst denying sensible atomism. Space,
defense against speculation in metaphysics, both im- with the exception of locomotion, is a substantial time, and motion are infinitely divisible; they are not
mutable and legislative, carefully delimiting what change, the actualization of a potential. Only gener- real for Leibniz, rather “well- founded phenomena.
could be considered as knowledge based upon pure ation and corruption are substantial changes” (…) An immanent and dynamic architectonic
reason. Kant may have regarded the sum of the cog- (2007: 73). “There are four possibilities of genesis: emerges, a structure that manages to account for both
nition of pure speculative reason as an edifice, but (…) from Not-Being; (…) from what exists, Being; the changeable character of phenomena, and the un-
prior to all apriori intuitions of space and time lay (…) from some kind of lack or privation, sterésis; changing nature of being.” (2007: 141). “The key
the determination of philosophy itself as the found- or, (…) from a potentiality (dunamis) actualizing concept will be unity and consistency” (2007: 142).
ing/grounding/limiting of the possibility of all into phenomena. (…) Corruption or degeneration (is
a) state where some particular being cannot be actu- 6 For instance, the Neurology of our days
knowledge, whether reason or intuition, practical or
alized as itself” (2007: 83). “(As example) Nature regards the brain architectonic as a complex
pure. Like the surveyor who lays out the benchmarks
is Becoming (and) is synonymous with genesis” interrelated system of systems working as a
and outlines the site for the excavation and eventual full body with the remaining body. As
construction of foundations, philosophy is, at its (2007: 90).
(Damásio, 1996: 30) writes, “Whatever neurons
ground, engaged in the construction or clearing or 5 In Leibniz, the idea of being and unity do depends on the nearby assembly of neurons they
founding in order to ask the question, the question would be dialectically synthesized gathering belong to; whatever systems do depends on how as-
that “has always been asked”. Therefore, philoso- both the ancient (metaphysical) concep- semblies influence other assemblies; and whatever
phy, not just as a metaphysics of transcendence, but tions, such as those proposed by Aristotle, each assembly contributes to the function of the sys-
all philosophy dealing with the conditions of possibil- and the modern (mechanical) ones, such as tem to which it belongs depends on its place in that
ity of all ontology, is fundamentally an architectonic” those proposed by René Descartes (b.1596– system. In other words, the brain specialization (…)
(Kavanaugh, 2007: 16). d.1650). Furthermore, for Leibniz the idea is a consequence of the place occupied by assemblies
4 In Aristotle the architectonic had been re- of unity reflects a state where substances are of sparsely connected neurons within a large-scale sys-
lated to an idea of genesis, i.e. a continuous in perfect agreement and are observed as oc- tem. In short (…) the brain is a supersystem of sys-
creative search onto the fundamentals, or a curring in a somewhat continuously unfold- tems. Each system is composed of an elaborate inter-
hypothetical basic unity from where things ing event. “A unity is per definition that which is connection of small but macroscopic cortical regions
come-to-be, which is made of generation without parts; yet Leibniz (architectonic) provides and subcortical nuclei, which are made of microscopic
and corruption (or de-generation). “The ar- another (conception) of unity: a unity of substance local circuits, which are made of neurons, all of which
chitectonic in Aristotle is a continuum of infinity, that is alive and dynamic, a unity of pre-established are connected by synapses”.
magnitude, time, and place; a never-ending and harmony of God, and a unity between soul and or- This idea that human reason is architectonic
never-failing circular line of coming-to-be and passing ganic body joined together with a substantial chain has been taken further by many Kantian fol-
away” (Kavanaugh, 2007: 14). “Not only is it or bond. (…) (The) monadic (or atomic) substance lowers, i.e. beyond individual human reason,
is always in an inter-relationship of singulars in a

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 knowledge. (…) (Kant’s) architectonic suffered from 11 As Harvey (2005: 204) writes: “under a
insisting that we shall only know how philo- structural failure (…) (yet) stood solid for quite a materialist perspective, we can argue that objective
sophical knowledge is possible when we can long time, influencing philosophical thought well past spatial and temporal conceptions are necessarily cre-
understand its place within a unified system its original construction”. ated by means of material practices and processes
of knowledge. As noted by (Kavanaugh, Indeed, if it would supposely configure, which are needed to reproduce the social life (…).
2007: 2-5) “Metaphysics (…) always implies an or attempt to configure a system in its Time and space cannot be understood regardless of
architectonic, an ontological structure that positions totality, then, accordingly, it would never be the collective human action”.
beings and Being within a complex composition. fully accomplished other than in a sort of
(Understanding it, requires) the inquiry is into its 12 Remarkably illustrative of such is the
system of all systems, in a God-like,
structure, its position within the ontological whole. In universal sort of figure. Kavanaugh (2007: 7- classical research conducted in genetic psy-
doing this analysis, two points become explicit: one, chology by Jean Piaget (b.1896-d.1980),
8) writes: “Absolute space presupposes an absolute
ontology has a structure; and two, the status of Being which has shown that, initially, to the child,
viewpoint from which all other objects in space are
within this structure. (…) Traditionally, philosophy measured. In this way any extension into space can there are as many spaces as are sensorial do-
has been in search of firm foundations. These mains. According to the theory, the con-
only be thought of geometrically (…). This ‘taking-
grounds were seen as immutable, eternal propositions struction of a ‘general’ space that includes all
measure’ requires a conception of space as homogene-
about which no contestation could be made. Upon ous, and time as uniform duration. Displacement the others only occurs in the end of the sec-
these foundations, other knowledge based on either ond year of life; it is only later, at about 7 to
has meaning only in context of change in relation to
experience or reason could be firmly placed in order 12 years of age, that children start to differ-
a fixed point – in this case God”.
to reconstruct or to understand the structure of the In a practical setting, the assumption of entiate viewpoints, manipulate mental im-
world. (…) Even critical philosophy, in attempting ages and represent movements of objects in
a totally controlled system can inadvertently
to question the metaphysical “remains”, still at- space, and so forth. Piaget and Inhelder (cf.
conduct to a kind of direct objectification, or
tempted to restore philosophy to her true foundations attempt of direct objectification, from idea 1997) distinguish four stages of spatial
and to retrace the origins of truth. Yet man not only awareness in the child’s growth. Sensorimo-
(mental) to real (concrete), where only the
constructed his architectonic of philosophy, he made tor Stage (0-2 years), where, space is idiocen-
most stoic and obsessive spirits can naively
the building blocks as well. Consequently, (…) we aspire to accomplish entirely. Even if seem- tric, that is, the child sees the location of an
will only discover what we have ourselves constructed object in space to be in relation to their own
ingly closely so, such objectification is sub-
earlier. (…) Man, precariously balancing upon body. As their mobility increases, they see
jected to ‘time’, i.e., to new, unpredictable
shifting foundations, shored up by his tenuous scaf- the object in relation to its surroundings.
circumstances that can most likely come up.
folding, attempts to raise himself far above - perhaps Piaget believes that young children see ob-
nearer to God. (…) The formulation of the “archi- 8 Cf. Berger (1972). jects in a topological sense, whereby the ob-
tectonic” is from Kant. Kant proposes an “architec- jects they see are not fixed in shape, suggest-
9 There is no shred of dogmatism, or pre- ing four topological concepts that they learn
tonic”, a tight systematic edifice organizing meta- tentiousness, when addressing entities such
physics within the limit of human reason, and the to become aware of which are, proximity
as space and time in a sort of category of ‘es-
transcendental conditions of the possibility of all ex- (relative position of an object to another ob-
sential elements’ in the architectural appa- ject), order (the sequence in which an object
perience. (…) The architectonic is the possibility of ratus. On the contrary, it is about proposing
all cognition given by pure reason. (…) “Human or event is observed), separation (under-
the exploration of an idea, not a delusional
reason”, he advanced, “so delights in constructions, stand that an object or event can come be-
attempt to define a comprehensive referen- tween other objects and events) and enclo-
that it has several times built up a tower, and then tial, which would just be a self-closed dead-
razed it to examine the nature of the foundation. It sure (demonstrable through concepts such
end. There is an evident ‘danger’ that such a
is never too late to become wise…”. (…) Kant con- as inside, outside, in, out and between). Pre-
discussion may at times turn onto a sort of Operational Stage (2-7 years), where the un-
structs his architectonic, which is indeed the very art philosophical kind of debate, which can be
of constructing a system. (…) As a unified whole, derstanding of spatial concepts begins to be-
more distant from practical or utilitarian
the architectonic includes a place for “filling in the come apparent through the child’s drawings,
terms towards the praxis. However, since as early as three years of age they are capable
gaps”, yet per definition does not allow for external not everything is necessarily measurable,
appendages to the system, for that would constitute a of making scribbles that could be differenti-
practical, or ‘useful’, and since the path is of-
mere aggregation and not a true unity”. ated as open or closed forms. Concrete Op-
ten the most valuable destination, we believe erational Stage (7-12 years) where from fur-
7 Only an ignorance of what is for instance that is a ‘risk’ worth taking. For that matter,
ther development of geometric space is
implied by relativity could lead to an we borrow Manfredo Tafuri’s somewhat
actually built upon previously held spatial
unquestionable assumption of such a harsh, yet vibrant and concise words, ex- conceptions, continuously revising earlier
universalist perspective. But certainly Kant, pressed in his Architecture and utopia : design
perceptions as undergoing transformations
influenced by Newton’s ideas, could not be and capitalist development, first published in
and learning more about the world. The
aware of the implications of the physics’ 1972: “For those anxiously seeking an operative child becomes able to apply projective ge-
relativity at the time. criticism, I can only respond with an invitation to
ometry in his/her thinking or view of the
According to Kavanaugh (2007: 10-12) transform themselves into analysts of some precisely
world, and to further understand the place-
“in the twentieth century (…) not only does Kant’s defined economic sector, each with an eye fixed on ment of objects in relation to each other and
architectonic break apart and fall into ruin, but also bringing together capitalist development and the pro-
take into account vertical and horizontal re-
the whole conception of physics as static, fixed and cesses of reorganization and consolidation of the
lationships. Formal Operational Stage (12
objective. (…) His conceptions have proven anything working class” (Tafuri, 1976: xi). year to adulthood) where people are able to
but immutable. Kant had, in fact, constructed his 10 In logics, in agreement with visualize the concepts of area, volume, dis-
notions of absolute space and time fundamentally Wittgenstein’s (cf. 1995) notion of reality, tance, translation, rotation and reflection,
from the paradigms of scientific certainty in his time we get that the world, the real, is and also combine measurement concepts
(…). He though he had found in Newton something intersubjective, hence it is there an alter real with projective skills.
solid (and) neutral (…) upon which to construct his which may suddently, and never predictably,
metaphysic. (…) (But) the foundations of Euclidean appear to our real.
geometry and Newtonian mechanics have indeed
proven to be just as uncertain as the other realms of

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 givens: for example between private space and public that I see or walk, although I do not open my eyes or
13 Hillier (1996: 29). space, between family space and social space, between move from my place, and even, perhaps, although I
cultural space and useful space, between the space of have no body: but, if I mean the sensation itself, or
14 In the classical Walden; or Life in the Woods,
leisure and that of work. All these are still nurtured consciousness of seeing or walking, the knowledge is
the XIXth century transcendentalist Henry
by the hidden presence of the sacred” (Foucault, manifestly certain, because it is then referred to the
David Thoreau (2006: 12) points out—from
1967: 23). mind, which alone perceives or is conscious that it sees
his introspective journey on the woods and
or walks” (Descartes, 1644).
as he experienced an immersive isolation 17 In Lefebvre (2005: 210) there is again, as
from the world in a hut made with his own in Eliade or Foucault, remarks on the idea of 26 “I continued to exercise myself in the method I
hands—four basic necessities of life: food, boundary, of limit, transition. Yet there is had prescribed; for, besides taking care in general to
shelter, clothing, and fuel. Regardless the also the idea of classification, hierarchization conduct all my thoughts according to its rules, I re-
(more or less) arguable essentiality of these that a threshold understates for space: the served some hours (…) devoted to the employment of
needs (or the accuracy of the words used by threshold of an entrance is a “transitional ob- the method in the solution of mathematical difficul-
Thoreau to describe them), there is a under- ject, one which has traditionally enjoyed an almost ties, or even in the solution likewise of some questions
lying understanding that, besides the ra- ritual significance (…). Objects fall spontaneously belonging to other sciences, but which, by my having
tionale of the space, and space with time, in into such classes as transitional objects, functional detached them from such principles of these sciences
the continuum of existence, space has also a objects, and so on. These classes, however, are always as were of inadequate certainty, were rendered almost
qualitative nature which is in its essence re- provisional: the classes themselves are subject to mathematical” (Descartes, 1637).
lated to the basic (human) life requirements. change, while objects are liable to move from one class
27 “The action by which he now sustains it is the
to another”.
15 In its celebrated The Production of Space, same with that by which he originally created it; so
Lefebvre (2005: 210) addresses multiple as- 18 Cf. Hillier (1996: 27-29). that even although he had from the beginning given
pects of space from a social, as well as phil- it no other form than that of chaos, provided only he
osophical, perspective. In one excerpt it is 19 Cf. Kärkkäinen (1991). had established certain laws of nature, (…) it may
clear the reference to the ‘sensory space’ that 20 Cf. Klein (1980). be believed, without discredit to the miracle of crea-
was here highlighted: “In what does sensory tion, that (…) things purely material might, in
space, within social space, consist? It consists in an 21 As it is thoroughly presented by Ay- course of time, have become such as we observe them
‘unconsciously’ dramatized interplay of relay points monino (cf. 1976), the CIAM of Frankfurt at present; and their nature is much more easily con-
and obstacles, reflections, references, mirrors and ech- (1929) and Brussels (1930) are key refer- ceived when they are beheld coming in this manner
oes – an interplay implied, but not explicitly desig- ences to the modern movement. In Frank- gradually into existence, than when they are only con-
nated, by this discourse. Within it, specular and furt the theme of the Existenzminimum, or sidered as produced at once in a finished and perfect
transitional objects exist side by side with tools rang- minimum dwelling, was discussed (cf. Teige, state” (Descartes, 1637).
ing from simple sticks to the most sophisticated in- 2002). The house problem acquires a pro-
struments designed for hand and body. Does the grammatic ordinance based on the utter- 28 The perspective as an expression of ra-
body, then, retrieve its unity, broken by language, most rationalization of the living cell. In tionality, reporting to the subject, through
from its own image coming towards it, as it were, Brussels the theme is further developed, the ‘eye’, and the mathematization of space,
from the outside? More than this, and better, is re- with new technical-economic insights, hous- is in the XVII century, where Descartes is
quired before that can happen. In the first place, a ing as a molecule of the urban organism, located, more even than during the Renais-
welcoming space is called for – the space of nature, with ideas such as densifying vs deconges- sance, according to the scientific and philo-
filled with non-fragmented ‘beings’, with plants and tioning (opening up discussion on the con- sophic vision that characterizes the modern
animals. (It is when architecture’s job to reproduce ditionings for high-rise developments), or age. Johann Heinrich Lambert, Jacomo Ba-
such a space where it is lacking.) And then effective, quantity vs distribution (making housing a rozzi da Vignola, Abraham Bosse, Jean
practical actions must be performed, making use of problem with global dimensions). Cousin, Albrecht Dürer, or Pierre-Henri de
the basic materials and matériel available”. Valenciennes figure among some of the
22 Cf. Benevolo (2009). most recognized authors of illustrated
16 In its famous essay Of Other Spaces, Heter- treatesies on perspective. Abraham Bosse
23 Cf. Palumbo (2000: 8).
otopias, Foucault (cf. 1967) reflects on how (b.1604-d.1676), a French printmaker and
space affects human behavior and experi- 24 Contemporarily, the man overlapped by lecturer at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de
ence. Such as it was earlier mentioned when the machine is, in effect, a recurrent theme Sculpture in Paris, in 1648 publishes the
referring Eliade (cf. 1992), in Foucault (cf. for instance in the sci-fi or cyberpunk litera- groundbreaking Manière Universelle de Mr De-
1967) it seems implicit the notion of sacred ture. In ‘real life’, experiments in fields such sargues pour pratiquer la Perspective, visually ex-
acquiring a foundational relevance in the dis- as genetics or nanotechnology, or recent de- plaining a geometric construction proce-
cussion of space, how it is appropriated and velopments in artificial intelligence pro- dure, thus unveiling and promoting the work
limited: “Now, despite all the techniques for appro- gramming seem to point to not so fictional of the mathematician Girard Desargues,
priating space, despite the whole network of developments. who had independently devised a new
knowledge that enables us to delimit or to formalize method for constructing perspectival im-
it, contemporary space is perhaps still not entirely de- 25 “By the word thought, I understand all that
ages. It was a practical procedure, not exactly
sanctified (apparently unlike time, it would seem, which so takes place in us that we of ourselves are innovative mathematics. However, De-
which was detached from the sacred in the nineteenth immediately conscious of it; and, accordingly, not only
sargues adds a description of the perspec-
century). To be sure a certain theoretical desanctifi- to understand (intelligere, entendre), to will (velle), to
tive’s vanishing points as points of intersec-
cation of space (the one signaled by Galileo's work) imagine (imaginari), but even to perceive (sentire, tion of plans, which allows recognition of a
has occurred, but we may still not have reached the sentir), are here the same as to think (cogitare,
new conception: in the Renaissance, what
point of a practical desanctification of space. And penser). For if I say, I see, or, I walk, therefore I
mattered was the correct foreshortened re-
perhaps our life is still governed by a certain number am; and if I understand by vision or walking the act
production.
of oppositions that remain inviolable, that our insti- of my eyes or of my limbs, which is the work of the
tutions and practices have not yet dared to break body, the conclusion is not absolutely certain, be- 29 The subsequent development of these
down. These are oppositions that we regard as simple cause, as is often the case in dreams, I may think

177
 perhaps the first modern theatre to address the cube, is read differently by each subject. It is a
philosophical conceptions did not escape, in so remarkably the flexibility in its design. fake portrait, but the values that determine it are
any moment, to give the eye relevance as a Unlike in conventional theatres, in its stage, there, unchanged. Every side can be accurately meas-
predominant sensorial receiver. According there is no separation between to the place ured. “From this drawing cubes can be built. But we
to Pallasmaa (1996: 9-12), Nietzsche criti- of acting and of the spectator: acting is pos- cannot understand them. And not only cubes are
cized “the eye outside time and History” presumed sible at every space, as both spectator and built with this method, but also houses, tools, ma-
by many philosophers. Jean-Paul Sartre was abso- stage surface are used. chines, and so on” (Aicher, 2001: 117-119).
lutely hostile on the eye sense to the point of ocular
phobia, concerned “with the objectifying look of the 35 The density of our iconosphere tends to 39 Cf. Damásio (1996).
other”, and “the glance of medusa petrifying every- be so high in certain areas of urban cultures,
that we do not see – or barely see – the im- 40 Cf. Foucault (1967).
thing that comes in contact with it”. According to
him, space took over time in the human con- ages, given that its hyperabundance has triv- 41 Simultaneously to this dematerializing
sciousness as consequence of ocularcen- ialize them and disabled, in great measure, its objectivation of space, the different sciences
trism. The philosophical works of Martin ability to attract the eye. The great paradox have increasingly specialized in such a way
Heidegger, Michel Foucault and Jacques is that their very excess tends to turn them that it ended up impeding virtually anyone to
Derrida also point out towards a critique to invisible. have an adequate general vision, or to be
the hegemony of vision: “arguing that thought comfortable in many fields and simultane-
36 Le Corbusier (1995: 31-48).
and the culture of modernity not only continued the ously be an absolute creator, as was Leo-
historical privilege of vision, but also magnified its 37 The eventful story of the design dialogue nardo da Vinci or Galileo, what is, in the
worse tendencies. The hegemony of vision was between architecture and structural stability end, the old romantic vision of the architect.
strengthened in our time by a multitude of technolog- of the Sidney Opera House is quite expres- Távora (1996: 21), quoting Ortega y Gasset,
ical inventions and by the endless multiplication of sive in this respect, where after all, the design calls it the “barbarism of specialism”.
images”. solution would be achieved by going back to
an analogical structure. In the development 42 Modern life, and the underlying idea of
30 Merleau-Ponty (1992: 20) writes: “im- progress and growth induced by its cumula-
of the design for the Sydney Opera House,
mersed in the visible by his body, itself visible, the tive (capitalist) matrix, has long relayed in
the chief structural engineer, Ove Arup,
see-er does not appropriate what he sees; he merely struggled for years with mathematical for- the development of continuous technologi-
approaches it by looking, he opens onto the world. cal improvement (cf. Meadows, Randers, &
mulae to represent Utzon’s original free-
And for its part, that world of which he is a part is Meadows, 2004). The costs of this continu-
hand concept of the shells. They tried parab-
not in itself, or matter. My movement is not a deci- olas, ellipsoids and circular arcs, but were ous development are yet to be known in its
sion made by the mind, an absolute doing which fullest extent, yet we know for a fact that
forced to concede defeat. No scheme could
would decree, from the depths of a subjective retreat, global inequalities are ever more visible. For
do justice to Utzon’s design. It seemed that
some change of place miraculously executed in ex- three years of work had been wasted. But now the planet has been able to provide
tended space. It is the natural sequel to, and matu- enough resources for the population inhab-
then Utzon took a remarkable lateral step,
ration of, vision. I say of a thing that it is moved; but iting it, but not without severe disparities (cf.
remaking the design from segments of a
my body moves itself; my movement is self-moved. It sphere, a concept he easily demonstrated to UN HDR, 2010).
is not ignorance of self, blind to itself; it radiates from the partners by peeling off an orange. The 43 Cf. Bachelard (1994).
a self (…)”. scheme had a remarkable simplicity and
would prove to fit both architecture and sta- 44 For Merleau-Ponty (1964: 164), “quality,
31 According to Palumbo (2000: 13-17) this
bility concerns. Given the current state of light, colour, depth, which are there before us, are
lead that the “architectural shapes should be in
digital tools, both for design and manufac- there only because they awaken an echo in our body
agreement with the laws of the senses, more than with
turing, most probably today the design un- and because our body welcomes them”.
the proportions of the body”. Palumbo also attributes
the appearance of Baroque as an unavoidable conse- folding would have had a different outcome.
45 Neurology research seems to confirm
quence of this process, which would also determine 38 An experiment described by (cf. 2001) is just that. From the current state of the art of
the “dissolution of rationalism in the visionary re- most clear in this respect. A drawing with scientific knowledge it seems largely consen-
search and the dissolution of Neoclassicism through three squares is shown to the subject, asking sual, that from the dualist separation of
the picturesque”. what they may be meaning: “some would point mind and body, rationality and emotion, in-
to mosaics, others to square bonbons, or others win- duced by the Cartesian notion of space, that
32 According to Pallasmaa (1996: 12), such
dow openings. Others would simply say: three the body and our emotions have a key role
is manifested in the “collapse of space and time
squares. And which is not wrong”. In the next step in the way we think and in rational decision-
as an experimental dimension. The experiences of
of the experiment a second drawing is shown, from making (cf. Lagerlund, 2007: 15).
space and time have imploded and melted by time”.
which the answer is immediate: a cube. The two
46 As it is referred by Damásio Damásio
33 The Farnese Theater, built in Parma and drawings in fact are showing the same thing. While (1996: 87), “the brain and the body are indissocia-
finished in 1618, is claimed as the first with in one we observe a pure Cartesian representation –
bly integrated by mutually targeted biochemical and
a permanent proscenium. The architect, as superior, lateral and frontal perception, allowing
neural circuits”. For instance, for the dancer,
Giovanni Battista Aleotti, made a rectangu- to exactly determine the cube and attribute measures as for the sportsman, or the painter, only the
lar wooden structure with the stage in one to it – in the other, the perception degenerates in a
embodiment, which happens by (body)
end, and the audience in the other, and an trapezium, being certain that a cube as nothing in
memory acquisition, through continuous
elaborated frame with curtains in-between. common with a trapezium. The second drawing is practice of their skills, turns gestures natural
Aleotti’s proscenium inaugurated the screen correct but not truthful but yet it shows immediately
for those who practice them. Such effort of
experience (cf. Mitchell, 2000). what the object in question is. The second drawing is
embodiment demands a laborious process
‘analogical’ because it gives a clear portrait of the ob- of acquisition. As Gil (2001: 13-29) writes in
34 The theatre Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz,
ject. It can be contemplated by every human being, no
Berlin (1978-81), designed by Jürgen reference to the dancer’s motion “the space of
matter what age, gender, race, faith, background,
Sawade, reconverting the remains of the
and so on. The first drawing, with three aspects of
1928 original, by Erich Mendelsohn, was

178
 has to define place. (…) Man, no less than animals, school as well as orphanage. He did not really accept
the body is the body made space”. The example of is subject to the stresses generated by penetration of the re-use, or accepted it only because it saved the
the child that is beginning to walk is most the individual’s ‘bubble’ of space. (…) Man’s de- building. When the students made in his building a
clear, as the child does not walk directly fense mechanisms seem more constant than his phys- sort of temporary building for a show, he was furi-
from cradle, but has to undergo a learning ical mechanisms and specific devices, which are more ous” (Herman Hertzberger, 2010).
curve where it will be developing the neural changeable and culturally defined. (For instance, in-
connections that will finally enable to walk 64 Umland (2013: 6).
dividually or culturally) attitudes to noise and pri-
without thinking on how to walk. These pro- vacy may vary, since they are social defense mecha- 65 Cf. Magritte (1929).
cesses apply both for movements of the nisms. It could be said that the form determinants of
body per se, as with extensions of it, such as the house can be divided into constant and changeable 66 “A map is not the territory it represents, but, if
in the case of the use of tools, which in its ones, and that the whole problem of constancy and correct, it has a similar structure to the territory,
full symbiotic extension makes the handler change can be related to built form in this way for a which accounts for its usefulness. If the map could be
and the handled thing one and the same. number of variables”. ideally correct, it would include, in a reduced scale,
Pallasmaa (2009: 50) notes in this respect: “a the map of the map; the map of the map, of the map;
great musician plays himself rather than a separate 55 On his own account on structure, Herman and so on, endlessly (…)” (Korzybski, 1933:
instrument. In drawing and painting, the pencil and Hertzberger lends a similar idea: “Structure is 58). “If words are not things, or maps are not the
the brush become extensions to the hand and to the cohesion: how things fit together, or rather, how they actual territory, then, obviously, the only possible
mind”. A similar notion is stated by Berger keep each other together. In a structure, all the vari- link between the objective world and the linguistic
and Savage (2005: 3): “Each confirmation or de- ous elements are interrelated” (Valena, world is found in structure, and structure alone.
nial brings you closer to the object, until finally you Avermaete, & Vrachliotis, 2011: 168). The only usefulness of a map or a language depends
are, as it were, inside it: the contours you have drawn on the similarity of structure between the empiri-
56 In Aldo Van Eyck’s words in Is Architec-
no longer marking the edge of what you have seen, cal world and the map-languages. If the structure is
ture going to reconcile basic values, in Otterlo:
but the edge of what you have become”. not similar, then the traveler or speaker is led astray,
“Man is always and everywhere essentially the same.
which, in serious human life-problems, must become
47 Cf. Stuttgart (2002). He has the same mental equipment though he uses it
always eminently harmful. If the structures are sim-
differently according to his cultural or social back-
48 Aymonino (1976: 245). ilar, then the empirical world becomes ‘rational’ to a
ground, according to the particular life pattern of
potentially rational being, which means no more than
which he happens to be a part. Modern architecture
49 Aymonino (1976: 249). that verbal, or map-predicted characteristics, which
has been harping continually on what is different in
follow up the linguistic or map-structure, are appli-
50 Aymonino (1976: 247) writes: “The possi- our time to such an extent even that it has lost touch
cable to the empirical world” (Korzybski, 1933:
bility to use technology to simplify domestic services with what is not different, with what is always essen-
61).
and ensure the biological condition of the dwelling tially the same”.
(…), finds its most suitable development in the large 67 Cf. Baudrillard (1994).
57 Cf. Gomes (1978).
building. The skyscraper is not only more comforta-
ble thanks to technology, but is based on some pecu- 68 Foucault (1983: 20-21) writes: “The opera-
58 Edward T. Hall gives an example of the
liarities it”. tion is a calligram that Magritte has secretly con-
Arab to stress cultural changing concepts of
structed, then carefully unraveled. Each element of
privacy, and consequently, different ways of
51 Aymonino (1976: 245-246) writes: “From the figure, their reciprocal position and their relation-
spatial formulation with repercussions in
the point of view of the user, the construction of low- ship derive from this process, annulled as soon as it
form: “the Arab dream is for lots of space in the
rise, especially of single-family houses, is very attrac- has been accomplished. Behind this drawing and
home, which unfortunately many Arabs cannot af-
tive especially for families in full growth. (…) The these words, before anyone has written anything at
ford. Yet when he has space, it is very different from
inevitable massification during working hours, due all, before the formation of the picture (and within it
what one finds in most American homes. Arab
to the circumstances of serial production and con- the drawing of the pipe), before the large, floating pipe
spaces inside their upper middle-class homes are tre-
sumption, also the dense cooperation among many has appeared-we must assume, I believe, that a cal-
mendous by our standards. They avoid partitions be-
people in the office or the factory, drives the opposite ligram has formed, then unraveled. There we have
cause Arabs do not like to be alone. The form of the
desire. Live with freedom of action and accept a long evidence of failure and its ironic remains. In its mil-
home is such as to hold the family together inside a
daily commute, rather than live in a minimum free lennial tradition, the calligram has a triple role: to
single protective shell, because Arabs are deeply in-
space with lack of green areas”. In addition “these augment the alphabet, to repeat something without
volved with each other. Their personalities are inter-
small houses often change proprietaries or occupants, the aid of rhetoric, to trap things in a double cipher.
mingled and take nourishment from each other like
even without being amortized”. First it bring s a text and a shape as close together
the roots and soil. If one is not with people and ac-
tively involved in some way, one is deprived of life. as possible. It is composed of lines delimiting the form
52 Cf. (Steinbeck, 1939).
An old Arab saying reflects this value: ‘Paradise of an object while also arranging the sequence of let-
53 Cf. Kunstler (1998). without people should not be entered because it is ters. It lodges statements in the space of a shape, and
Hell’ ” (Hall, 1990: 157-159). makes the text say what the drawing represents. On
54 On constancy and change, Rapoport the one hand, it alphabetizes the ideogram, populates
(1969: 78-82) writes: “certain aspects of human 59 Cf. Risselada and Van Den Heuvel it with discontinuous letters, and thus interrogates
life are constant, or change very slowly, and replace- (2005: 280-285). the silence of uninterrupted lines. But on the other
ment of old forms is often due to the prestige value of hand, it distributes writing in a space no longer pos-
novelty rather than lack of utility or even unsatisfac- 60 Cf. Brand (1995).
sessing the neutrality, openness, and inert blankness
tory relation to the way of life. (…) Architects have of paper. It forces the ideogram to arrange itself ac-
61 Cf. Strauven (1998: 284-325).
suggested that one can usefully distinguish between cording to the laws of a simultaneous form. For the
technological space, such as bathrooms and service 62 (Herman Hertzberger, 2010). blink of an eye, it reduces phoneticism to a mere grey
spaces, which is changing as equipments and services noise completing the contours of the shape; but it ren-
change, and symbolic, largely living, space, which is 63 “(He) didn’t like it. Aldo Van Eyck was cer-
tainly not a structuralist as what we call infill was ders outline as a thin skin that must be pierced in
constant an usable almost indefinitely. (…) The con-
cept (…) of place is fundamental. (…) (And) the stable for him. For him it was all structure, so his
need for security may be one of the reasons why man building was an open structure that could serve as

179
 building complex based purely on the work of arti- (68.7), Hungary (67.6), Norway (62.6), Ro-
order to follow, word for word, the outpouring its in- sans” (Utzon & Weston, 2009: 28). mania (60.7) and Denmark (58.4), while
ternal text. The calligram is thus tautological. But semi-detached houses were most popular in
in opposition to rhetoric. The latter toys with the full- 77 Cf. Turner (1976). the Netherlands (61.4), the United Kingdom
ness of language. (…) The calligram aspires play- 78 The system is still currently in use to (60.9) and Ireland (57.6).
fully to efface the oldest oppositions of our alphabeti- build flexible, affordable houses.
cal civilization: to show and to name; to shape and 94 Cf. Hammond (2011).
to say; to reproduce and to articulate; to imitate and 79 Turner (1976: 13-16). 95 European Commission (2013: 5).
to signify; to look and to read”.
80 Turner’s conception borrows system’s 96 Cf. EU' (2009).
69 Golub and Frey (1999: 76). terminology: “If stability (of a system) is to be at-
tained, the variety of the controlling system must be 97 Cf. Atkin (1999).
70 Golub and Frey (1999: 76). at least as great as the variety of the system to be
98 Cf. Eurostat (2013).
71 Golub and Frey (1999: 74-76). controlled” (Turner, 1976: 32).
The criteria for SMEs labelling is the re-
72 Cf. Utzon and Weston (2009: 8). 81 Cf. Habraken (1972). lated with personnel number falling behind
certain limits. SMEs outnumber large com-
73 Weston (2002: 11). 82 Cf. Habraken and Mignucci (2009). panies by a wide margin and also employ
83 Herman Hertzberger (2010). many more people, such is a fact not exclu-
74 Cf. Weston (2002: 14-31).
sive of the construction sector. They are too
75 Cf. Weston (2002: 112-201). 84 Herman Hertzberger (2010). considered responsible for driving competi-
tion and innovation in many economic sec-
76 The Additive Architecture manifesto, as 85 Herman Hertzberger (2010) writes: “You
tors.
written by Jørn Utzon, in 1970, is as follows: have less control over the details because there is less
“A consistent exploitation of industrially produced making, there is much more assembling of, say a fa- 99 Cf. Stawinska (2010).
building elements is only achieved when these ele- çade. Today nobody is going to detail a façade, it is
something you buy, you adapt (…). It doesn’t make 100 Benjaafar and Sheikhzadeh (1995)
ments can be added to buildings without the compo-
sense anymore to design a façade; it is a technical writes: “processing parts in batches is preferable to
nents in any way needing to be cut or adapted.
feature”. the processing of parts in lots of size one when setup
Such pure addition principle produces a new form of
times are significant. By batching parts that have
architecture, a new architectonic expression with the 86 Hertzberger (2005: 106) writes: “If an ar- similar manufacturing requirements, the frequency of
same qualities and same effect as the addition of, for chitect is capable of fully grasping the implications of setups is reduced. Batching is also desirable when
instance, the trees in the forest, groups of animals, the distinction between structure and filling, or in material handling is carried out by a set of discrete
stones on the shore, goods wagons on a shunting other words between ‘competence’ and ‘performance’, transporters (e.g., automated guided vehicles, forklift
ground, the Danish lunch table, all according to how he can arrive at solutions with a greater potential trucks, and tow carts). Larger batches reduce the
many different components are added in this game. value as regards applicability – i.e. with more space number of trips between machines required from the
The game conforms exactly to the demands of our for interpretation. And because the time factor is in- transporters. In turn, this reduces the loading of these
time for greater freedom in the planning of buildings corporated in his solutions: with more space for time. transporters which decreases the possibility of the ma-
and a strong desire that the building should not be While on the one hand structure stands for what is terial handling system becoming a bottleneck. Exces-
constrained to the shape that could be called the box, collective, the way in which it may be interpreted, on sive batching can, however, result in performance de-
limited by a given size, and traditionally divided up the other hand, represents individual requirements, terioration. Increasing batch sizes increases the batch
by partition walls. thus reconciling individual and collective”. processing times at machines. Before leaving a ma-
When you work on the basis of the additive
chine, a part must wait for the entire batch to be
principle, you can without difficulty respect and hon- 87 Herman Hertzberger (2010) writes: “I
processed before it can be transferred to the next ma-
our all demands concerning the shape of the ground have implied the smaller scale. That makes some
chine. This longer processing time can eventually
plan and rooms and all demands for expansion and people say I am ‘knitting’ as they get nervous of the
erode the savings in flow time gained from the reduced
alterations, as the architecture, or perhaps rather the small scale I introduced in my building. Even Aldo
frequency of setups and material transports. The de-
character, is precisely the character of the juxtaposed Van Eyck, who was my teacher in that field, got
terioration in performance caused by larger process
and not the composed or that determined by the fa- nervous and did not realize there were so many places
batches can be, in part, limited by allowing for
çade. or space units possible. I found out that as long as
smaller transfer batches between machines. However,
It is likewise possible when working with the additive you make the whole out of space units that are con-
this may not always be beneficial since the smaller
principle to avoid offending against the right of the nected you get a better building”.
transfer batches can result in increased loading of the
individual components to exist. They all find expres-
88 Hertzberger (2002: 72). material handling system”.
sion.
The functionalist moral, which of course is the 89 Cf. Aymonino (1976). 101 Cf. Mourão and Pedro (2010).
essential background to true building, is respected.
The drawings are not and entity in themselves with 90 Cf. van den Thillart (2004). 102 Cf. Gervásio (2010).
module lines of no significance or thickness, but the 91 Cf. Pittini and Laino (2011). 103 Cf. R. E. Smith (2010).
modules lines are the thicknesses of walls, and the
lines on the paper are outlines of finished things. 92 Cf. Andrews, Sánchez, and Johansson 104 Solar Decathlon is an international com-
The projects show what freedom in the fashion- (2011). petition organized by the U.S. Department of
ing of widely different undertakings can be achieved Energy, challenging under-graduate teams to
93 According to Rybkowska (cf. 2011), the
with the additive principle, while at the same time it design, build and operate solar-powered
percentages of persons living in flats ranged
demonstrates the core problems in the shapping of the houses that are cost-effective, energy-effi-
from 3.1 in Ireland, 7.3 in Norway and 14.2
elements or components, and there is a hint (for in- cient, and attractive. The winner of the com-
in the UK to over 60 in Spain, Estonia and
stance in the stadium project) of the superiority
Latvia. The percentage of people living in
achieved when it is a question of controlling produc-
detached houses was greatest in Slovenia
tion, price and construction time in relation to the

180
 136 Davies (2005: 158). 145 Cf. Mersmann (2014).
petition is the team that best blends afford-
ability, consumer appeal, and design excel- 137 Cf. Wærn (2008). 146 Cf. Mersmann (2014).
lence with optimal energy production and 138 In Sweden, in 2010, there was around 147 Cf. 'Statistics NL' (2014).
maximum efficiency. So far, editions were 56% of the one- or two-dwelling buildings
held in 2002, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, (roughly 2.5 million), 44% in multi-dwelling 148 Cf. 'Statistics NL' (2014).
2015 and 2017. (roughly 2 million). Housing construction 149 Cf. Gibb (1998).
105 Pallasmaa (1991). decreased for two years in a row: in 2009 and
2010, 22,821 and 19,500 dwellings respec- 150 Cf. Edge (2002).
106 Cf. Girault (1998). tively were completed in newly constructed
151 Cf. Gibb (1998).
buildings. This can be compared to 2008
107 Cf. McBeth (1998).
when 32,021 dwellings were completed. 152 Cf. van den Thillart (2004).
108 These would be built in France and in- Multi-dwelling buildings accounted for the
largest decrease (cf. 'SCB', 2012). 153 Cf. van den Thillart (2004).
tended to be widely deployed in tropical Af-
rica (Niger and Congo), but never really In Finland, at the end of 2010 there 154 Cf. Machado and Geuze (2005).
leave the marketing prototypical phase (cf. were 2,808,000, around 600,000 more than
Vegesack, Dumont d'Ayot, & Reichlin, in the 1990’s, yet with about half the growth 155 Cf. Jones (2010).
2006). rate than in the 1980’s. Of the 5.4 million
156 Cf. 'Froebel Gifts' (2008).
population, some over half lived in detached
109 Cf. Guidot (1983). one-family houses, one-third in blocks of 157 Cf. Stiny (1980).
flats, and the rest (13%) in terraced houses
158 Schomaker (2003).
110 They were developed at a time when (cf. 'ARA', 2012; 'Statistics FI', 2012).
Nikita Khrushchev was in power, from In Denmark, on 1 January 2011, there 159 Simmel (1903: 17).
1954, which is why the buildings became were 2,745,458 dwellings, of which 93.7%
known as Khrushchyovka. were occupied. One-family houses ac- 160 Schomaker (2003: 6).
counted for 44%, multi-family buildings for
111 Cf. Goldhoorn (2002). 161 Cf. Hellgardt (1987).
39%, while the remaining were other types.
112 Cf. Goldhoorn (2002). Owner-occupied houses were just over half 162 Hellgardt (1987: 97).
of the dwellings, while rented houses were
113 Cf. Wilson (1998). 163 As in Jean Nouvel’s Nemausus I (see cor-
around 46%. Residential construction
responding complementary text in Annex I).
peaked in the 1970’s, with the greatest num-
114 Cf. Wilson (1998).
ber of 55,000 dwellings completed in 1973. 164 Cf. Schomaker (2003).
115 Cf. Korvenmaa (1990). The economic growth in mid-2000s has
again implied an increase in the number of 165 Staib, Dörrhöfer, and Rosenthal (2008:
116 Davies (2005: 158-160). dwellings completed from 2003 to 2007, 23-24).
117 Cf. Wærn (2008). where it peaked with 31,000 dwellings com-
166 Cf. May (1929).
pleted. It was primarily one-family houses,
118 Cf. Edge (2002). which account for the growth. Since 2008, 167 Staib et al. (2008: 24).
the crisis has resulted in a strong slowing
119 Cf. Wærn (2008). 168 Staib et al. (2008: 25).
down: in 2011 reached little over 11,000 (cf.
120 Cf. Edge (2002). 'Statistics DK', 2012). 169 Staib et al. (2008: 26).
In Norway, in January 2008, there were 1.44
121 Cf. Ryan E. Smith (2009). million residential buildings, from which 170 Urban (2013: 10).
122 Cf. Aalto (1994). there were 2.3 million dwellings. Of these,
171 Cf. Anderson (2000).
52% were detached houses, and almost 80
123 Cf. Schildt (1994: 229-232). percent of the households own their dwell- 172 According to Hellgardt (1987: 97).
ing (cf. 'Statistics NO', 2012). “When we apply Benjamin's concept of technical re-
124 Cf. Piñar (2013).
producibility to housing production, we are not so
139 Cf. Wilson (1998).
125 Wilson (1998: 10). much concerned with the fact that something is being
140 Cf. Edge (2002). (re)produced-'The work of art has always at root
126 Wærn (2008: 28-29). been reproducible', says Benjamin- but more with the
141 Cf. Wiencek (1987). question of how it is (re)produced. Both the produc-
127 Wilson (1998: 10).
tion and perception of the work of art changed with
142 Cf. Wærn (2008).
128 Cf. Schildt (1998). the change in technical reproduction: the conditions of
143 Davies (2005: 156-157). perception are no longer recognizable behind the units
129 Cf. Kaila (2016).
to be reproduced, rather they are barricaded in by
144 Excluding small countries such as
130 Cf. Home and Taanila (2002). them. Technology itself, as it actually exists without
Malta, Monaco, San Marino or the Vatican,
the costume of a dictated rationality, teaches us what
131 Cf. Weston (2002). it is the greatest population density in Eu-
is to be (re)produced and how”.
rope. Worldwide, in countries with over 10
132 Cf. Sanz (2013). million people, it ranks fourth behind 1st 173 Bergdoll, Christensen, and Broadhurst
133 Cf. Collymore (1994). Bangladesh (954/km2), 2nd Taiwan [China] (2008: 17).
(639/km2), and 3nd South Korea (487/km2).
134 Cf. Nord (2008). It is even greater than in Japan (337/km2), 174 Cf. Gropius (1965).
which has similar compactly built areas.
135 Cf. Nord (2008).

181
 208 Cf. Lewis (2013). the war there had been 1,000,000 employed in the
175 Cf. Kennedy (2006). building industry but this had been reduced to
209 Davies (2005: 59).
387,000 during the war. The government was set to
176 Bergdoll et al. (2008: 56).
210 Knaack, Chung-Klatte, and Hasselbach expand the industry to a level of 800,000 skilled
177 Bergdoll et al. (2008: 56-57). (2012: 24). personnel by the end of the first year after the war,
through adult and apprentice training. Thus the
178 Arieff and Burkhart (2002: 15). 211 Herbert (1978: 156). building unions were to be reassured that their skills
179 Cf. Jones (2010). would not be devalued by the introduction of the fac-
212 Herbert (1978: 156).
tory made house during this period by ensuring its
180 Bergdoll et al. (2008: 62-65). 213 Cf. Giedion (1941). ‘temporary’ nature”.
181 Cf. Jones (2010). 214 R. E. Smith (2010: 8). 237 Vale (1995: 86-89).
182 Imperiale (2012: 39-43). 215 Cf. Gibb (1998). 238 Cf. 'The National Archives' (2008).
183 Cf. Kirsch (2013). 216 Harrison, Mullin, Reeves, and Stevens 239 Cf. 'University of the West of England'
(2004: xiii). (2013).
184 Blundell-Jones (2002: 11-46).
217 Cf. Davies (2005). 240 Cf. Way (2011).
185 Cf. Hitchcock and Johnson (1932).
218 Cf. Hughes (2010). 241 Cf. 'University of the West of England'
186 Blundell-Jones (2002: 16-17).
(2013).
219 Davies (2005: 59-60).
187 Cf. Lihotzky (1927).
242 Cf. 'University of the West of England'
220 Cf. Phillipson, Scotland, and Lane
188 Cf. Kinchin and O'Connor (2011). (2013).
(2001).
189 See the introduction by Donald Al- 243 Davies (2005: 66).
221 Vale (1995: 88-89).
brecht and Peter S. Reed Enlisting Modernism,
244 Davies (2005: 66).
in Albrecht and Crawford (1995). 222 Cf. Phillipson et al. (2001).
245 Cf. Knaack et al. (2012).
190 Venables and Courtney (2004: 11). 223 Davies (2005: 59-60).
246 Cf. 'University of the West of England'
191 Staib et al. (2008: 29-30). 224 Cf. Phillipson et al. (2001).
(2013).
192 Venables and Courtney (2004: 11). 225 Vale (1995: 118).
247 Cf. Pearson and Delatte (2005).
193 Bergdoll et al. (2008: 122-123). 226 Vale (1995: 127). 248 Cf. Matthews and Reeves (2012).
194 Staib et al. (2008: 34). 227 Vale (1995: 89-94).
249 Cf. Phillipson et al. (2001).
195 Cf. Kossak (2012). 228 Vale (1995: 127). 250 Cf. 'University of the West of England'
196 Bergdoll et al. (2008: 136-137). 229 Vale (1995: 119). (2013).

197 Arieff and Burkhart (2002: 35-36). 230 Davies (2005: 61-62). 251 Davies (2005: 67).

198 Cf. Venables and Courtney (2004). 231 Vale (1995: 119). 252 Cf. Gannon (2017).

199 Cf. Edge (2002). 232 Davies (2005: 63). 253 Cf. Cook (1999).

200 According to R. E. Smith (2010: 5), “the 233 Vale (1995: 10-24). 254 Cf. Davies (1993).
history of prefabrication in the West begins with
234 Cf. Storr (2011). 255 Cf. LeCuyer (1996).
Great Britain’s global colonization effort. In the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries, settlements in to- 235 According to Vale (1995: 87), “war time 256 Cf. Alonso-Zandari and Hashemi
day’s India, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, had produced drastic changes in both the organiza- (2017).
New Zealand, Canada, and the United States re- tion of society and the technologies available to it.
quired a rapid building initiative. Since the British 257 Cf. Egan (1998).
Normal caution in assimilating innovation and de-
were not familiar with many of the materials in velopment was apparently disregarded during the 258 Cf. Waskett and Phillipson (2001).
abundance in these countries, components were man- emergency, making new products and methods of
ufactured in England and shipped by boat to the manufacture immediately available as the need arose. 259 Cf. Housing Forum (2002).
various locations worldwide”. However, with this explosion of technology must be 260 Cf. Egan and Strategic Forum for
201 Cf. Herbert (1978). coupled the desire of the ordinary person for things to Construction (2002).
return to normal after the war. It was apparent that
202 Bergdoll et al. (2008: 234). there were to be changes (the Beveridge Report of 261 Cf. Edge (2002).
1942 had assured that) but permanent changes had
203 Cf. Herbert (1978). 262 Cf. Pawley (1973).
to be seen as changes for the better. Housing was one
204 Cf. Herbert (1978). area where traditional values had never been lost de- 263 Cf. English Housing Survey team
spite the experience of many of the population who (2015).
205 Cf. Spoerl (2004). had lived in prefabricated, factory produced huts and
264 Cf. 'Girders' (2011); Bergdoll et al.
206 Cf. Mornement and Holloway (2007). hostels”.
(2008); Hansen (2005).
207 Cf. Lewis (2013). 236 According to Vale (1995: 87-88), “before

182
 300 Cf. Bergdoll et al. (2008: 234). 313 apud Gibb (1998).
265 Cf. 'Lincoln Logs' (2011); Bergdoll et al.
(2008). 301 “Copyright is a form of protection provided to 314 Cf. Fumiaki (2003).
the authors of ‘original works of authorship’ includ-
266 Cf. Banham (2002). ing literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain 315 Cf. Oshima (2008).
other intellectual works, both published and un- 316 Cf. Edge (2002).
267 Cf. Taylor (2007).
published. [In the US] the copyright protects the
268 Cf. Davies (2005); Reiff (2000). form of expression rather than the subject matter of 317 Cf. Barlow and Ozaki (2005).
the writing. For example, a description of a machine
269 Cf. Davies (2005); Reiff (2000); 318 Cf. Toyota (2013).
could be copyrighted, but this would only prevent oth-
Schlereth (1982). ers from copying the description; it would not prevent 319 Cf. Ohno (1988).
270 Davies (2005: 119). others from writing a description of their own or from
320 Cf. Womack and Jones (2003).
making and using the machine” (Lawmart,
271 Cf. 'Aladdin' (2001); Reiff (2000); 2015). 321 Cf. Ryan E Smith (2008).
Schlereth (1982).
302 “A patent for an invention is the grant of a 322 Instantaneous – the processes should
272 Cf. Bergdoll et al. (2008); Reiff (2000); property right to the inventor (…). The term of a have the ability to link each other as fast as
Schlereth (1982). new patent is 20 years from the date on which the possible;
application for the patent was filed in the United Costless – besides the initial investment
273 Cf. Bergdoll et al. (2008); Goodheart
States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier to create the MC, the linking system to be
(1996).
related application was filed, subject to the payment implemented should add the least possible
274 Cf. M. J. Smith (2010). of maintenance fees. The right conferred by the patent to the producing costs of the product or ser-
grant is, in the language of the statute and of the vice;
275 M. J. Smith (2010: 9). grant itself, ‘the right to exclude others from making, Seamless – implementation should not
276 Cf. M. J. Smith (2010). using, offering for sale, or selling’ the invention in the break the ongoing state of things;
United States or ‘importing’ the invention into the Frictionless – the cross-skills required for
277 Cf. Arieff and Burkhart (2002). United States. What is granted is not the right to the MC process to work should be the most
make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right transparent and expeditious as possible, for
278 Arieff and Burkhart (2002: 15-16).
to exclude others from making, using, offering for that IT’s most likely will be fundamental.
279 Arieff and Burkhart (2002: 17) sale, selling or importing the invention” (Lawmart, Cf. B. Joseph Pine II, Victor, and
2015). Boynton (1993).
280 Cf. Arieff and Burkhart (2002).
303 “Japanese society has been inundated at vari- 323 Collaborative customizers – conduct a dia-
281 Cf. Arieff and Burkhart (2002). ous times by cultural influences from abroad. In early logu with individual customers to help them
282 Cf. Arieff and Burkhart (2002); Davies times, these influences came primarily from Korea articulate their needs, to identify the precise
(2005: 66); Cf. R. E. Smith (2010). and China; more recently, mostly from Europe and offering that fulfills those needs, and to
the United States” (Young & Young, 2007: 11- make customized products for them.
283 Cf. Mankiw and Weil (1989). 23). Adaptive customizers – offer one standard
284 Cf. 'Statistics US' (2011). but customizable, product that is designed
304 “Since wood can breathe, it is suitable for the
Japanese climate. Wood absorbs humidity in the wet so that users can alter it themselves.
285 Staib et al. (2008: 26). Cosmetic customizers – present a standard
months and releases moisture when the air is dry.
product differently to different customers.
286 Cf. Fuller, Krausse, and Lichtenstein With proper care and periodic repairs, traditional
post-and-beam structures can last as long as 1,000 Transparent customizers – provide individ-
(1999).
ual customers with unique goods or services
years. Other natural building materials are reeds,
287 Bergdoll et al. (2008: 88). without letting them know explicitly that
bark, and clay used for roofing, and stones used for
supporting pillars, surfacing building platforms, and those products and services have been cus-
288 Cf. E. A. T. Smith, Shulman, and tomized for them.
Gössel (2002). holding down board roofs, with an emphasis upon
Cf. B. Joseph Pine II and Gilmore
straight lines, asymmetry, simplicity of design, and
289 "Dwell Magazine" 2012). understatement, exemplified by pre-Buddhist Shinto (1997).
shrines, farmhouses, teahouses, and tasteful contem- 324 Elicitation – a mechanism for interacting
290 Cf. "Some Assembly Required:
porary interiors” (Young & Young, 2007: 11- with the customer and obtaining specific in-
Contemporary Prefabricated Houses"
23). formation.
2006).
Process flexibility – production technol-
305 Cf. Tobriner (1997).
291 Cf. Bergdoll et al. (2008). ogy that fabricates the product according to
306 Cf. Brock and Brown (2000). the information.
292 Cf. 'Statistics US' (2011).
Logistics – subsequent processing stages
307 Cf. Johnson (2007). and distribution that are able to maintain the
293 Cf. Davies (2005: 73).
308 Cf. Ochi (2005). identity of each item and to deliver the right
294 Cf. Davies (2005: 75). one to the right customer.
309 Cf. Brock and Brown (2000). Cf. Zipkin (2001).
295 Cf. Davies (2005: 76-78).
310 Cf. Ohno (1988). 325 Cf. Zipkin (2001).
296 Cf. Davies (2005: 83).
311 Cf. B. J. Pine II (1993). 326 Cf. Salvador, de Holan, and Peiller
297 Davies (2005: 83-84).
(2009).
312 Cf. Ochi (2005).
298 Cf. Yarnal and Aman (2009).

299 Cf. Yarnal and Aman (2009).

183
 329 Cf. van den Thillart (2004). what each one of us do might affect all the
327 Solution Space Development – a mass cus- others), and transnational companies (re-
tomizer must first identify the idiosyncratic 330 Broadly, a kit-of-parts refers to object-
sponsible for two thirds of the world trade,
needs of its clients, specifically the product oriented construction techniques, where which works as a networked entity, physi-
attributes of which the consumer may di- components are pre-designed/pre-engi-
cally and electronically interconnected).
verge more, and from that knowledge clearly neered/pre-fabricated for inclusion in joint-
define its solution space, delineating what it based (linear element), panel-based (planar 336 Cf. Castells (2002: 123-198).
will offer (and what it will not). For such, is element), module-based (volumetric ele- This is at least an idea concordant with
fundamental to have innovative tool kits in ment), and deployable (time element) con- a certain popular discourse, in which global-
which the consumers may traduce their pref- struction systems. ization often works as a buzzword to de-
erences directly to the product design, high- scribe liberal or neo-liberal policies in the
331 In brief, morphological transferability
lighting the less satisfactory needs during the world economy, seemingly ascendency of
can be defined as techniques that aim at a
process. In that perspective and to comple- westernized or Americanized forms of polit-
minimization of the diversity of connections ical, economic and cultural life, spread of
ment it, developing customer experience in- between objects, in which the greater their
telligence, accumulating data introduced by (new) information technologies [IT’s], or the
geometrical and/or material resemblance,
the consumer may be a value tool for the notion of a seemingly unified world commu-
the more likely it is their connections can be
company. Additionally, virtual concept test- nity in a global integration.
similar, thereby contributing to increase pro-
ing is also of relevance, namely via ways of duction scales. 337 According to Herod (2009: 230), the
virtual prototype creation and evaluation to global “tying together has been ongoing since hu-
prospective customers. 332 If 10 suppliers are, each, responsible for mans first left East Africa millennia ago, it has been
Robust Process Design – a mass customizer 10 variants, this results in a final value of 100
a historically and geographically uneven process –
needs to ensure that an increased variability variants. This final number is executable if
spatial linkages between different parts of the globe
in customer’s requirements will not impair the logistic complexity is dissolved among have been initiated and deepened more at certain
the company’s operations and supply chains. participants, and for such an elevated num-
times and between certain places than others. There
One possibility is through flexible automa- ber of variants, the client only needs to take
is, then, a material basis to periodizing human ex-
tion, as is the case of intangible goods sup- 10 decisions. On the other end, it is only istence by suggesting that particular eras experience
plied via internet. Process modularity may possible to manage a virtual number of var-
more instances of what many have come to call glob-
also be a complementary alternative, which iants that can be created in a system if there
alization than do others. However, given that histor-
can be achieved by thinking of operational is an agreement in which the sub-systems are ical and geographical processes are just that – pro-
and value-chain processes as segments, each compatible and that its suppliers accept the
cesses – it is often difficult to say with any great
one linked to a specific source of variability responsibility for their own components.
precision when a particular process (as is the case of
in customers’ requirements. To ensure the ‘globalization’) definitively began”. Indeed, “it is
333 It is known that it is something that it is
success of robust process designs, compa- always hard to date with precision the appearance of
happening and that it is a process of increas-
nies need to invest in adaptive human capi- a concept”, refers Calinescu (1999: 13), and all
ing connectedness. It is also known that it
tal, specifically, employees and managers the more so when it is so complex, transver-
involves a great deal of areas of human en-
have to be capable of dealing with new and sal and somewhat of a hype use as globaliza-
deavor, and that every knowledge field is (or
ambiguous tasks to offset any potential rig- tion.
can be) in one way or another related to it.
idness that is embedded in process struc-
Such is, for instance, evidenced by the mul- 338 Social and geographical theory has for-
tures and technologies.
titude of literature one can find on it in di-
Choice Navigation – a mass customizer mulated a broader concept of globalization
verse areas of e.g. sociology, economics, ge-
must support customers in identifying their that goes beyond some possible misleads by
ography or cultural theory. Eldemery (2009: common occurrences of the theme. It has to
problems and solutions while minimizing
344) writes: “Serving as a buzzword of the decade,
complexity and the burden of choice. The do with fundamental changes in spatial and
the phenomenon of globalization has attracted more
consumer, when exposed to too many temporal contours of social existence (cf.
significant global attention than perhaps any other Virilio, 2000), such as spatial compression
choices will most likely suffer from what has
issue in recent memory, yet the term is used in so
been called the “paradox of choice” in which by increasingly simultaneity of time (Harvey,
many different contexts, by so many different people,
too many options can actually reduce cus- 2005: 240).
for so many different purposes”.
tomer value instead of increasing it. Easing
339 It is never an easy task to date with any
choice and simplifying navigation choice are 334 It has also been conceived as a relatively
great precision when a process such as glob-
therefore a must. This can be made via as- long-term process and understood as a
alization initiated – it can maybe be traced
sortment matching, software matching sets multi-pronged process, since those factors back to when humans begun leaving East
of options with a model of the customers’ manifest themselves in many different are-
Africa thousands of years ago, maybe be-
needs and then making product recommen- nas of social activity. (cf. Scheuerman, 2010).
fore. In any case, the primary forms of our
dations. Additionally, fast-cycle, trial and-er-
335 Giddens (2004: 123-198) points three current status of globalization seems to have
ror learning may be implemented, empower-
general factors contributing for such had a definitive boost coming from Euro-
ing customers to build models of their needs
conspicuous relations: political changes (e.g. pean sailors in their voyages of discovery in
and interactively testing the match between
the end of cold war, increase of international the late XV century, which for the first time
those models and the available solutions.
and regional mechanisms of government would leverage trade to a worldwide level,
Moreover, by embedded configuration, that
such as UN and EU, increase of the inter- and would ultimately have a igniting role to-
is, products that ‘understand’ how they
governmental organizations – IGO’s – and wards the industrial revolution.
should adapt to the customer and then re-
international non-governmental organiza- Harvey (2005: 244) writes: “The voyages
configure themselves accordingly.
tions – NGO’s); informational flows (histor- of discovery produced an astounding flow of
Cf. Salvador, de Holan, and Peiller
ical events increasingly broadcasted live, so- knowledge about a wider world that had somehow to
(2009).
cial networks among others, and be absorbed and represented. They indicated a globe
328 Cf. Noguchi (2010). consequently growing awareness of that

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 commodity exchanges, and so on. Seen from learning in a neuron circuit, become images in our
that was finite and potentially knowable. Geograph- below it is possible to observe, for instance, minds; the process that allows for invisible micro-
ical knowledge became a valued commodity in a so- the so-called global citizenship, NGO’s, civil structural changes in neuron circuits (in cell bodies,
ciety that was becoming more and more profit-con- society, subaltern globalization or human dendrites and axons, and synapses) to become a neu-
scious. The accumulation of wealth, power, and rights as counter force. ral representation, which in turn becomes an image
capital became linked to personalized knowledge of, “At a minimum, globalization suggests that we each experience as belonging to us.”.
and individual command over, space”. academic philosophers in the rich countries of the It adds what is called the change blindness
West should pay closer attention to the neglected effect, which is the failure to notice a sur-
340 With secularization are implied what
voices and intellectual traditions of peoples with prisingly large change from one moment to
Eliade (cf. 1959) refers to as death of my-
whom our fate is intertwined in ever more intimate the next, because the attention capacity of
thology, berth of anthropocentrism and of
ways” (Dallmayr, 1998 apud Scheuerman, the brain is limited. When we look at our
self-consciousness of the inescapability of
2010). world, we take in a far smaller subset of it
historical, linear, time.
than we think we do and what we are focus-
348 Surprisingly, in the light of some eco-
341 Cf. Calinescu (1999). ing on is what we process in a lot of detail
nomic studies that have devised methods for
and become aware of (cf. Sweeney, 2011).
342 Cf. Levinson (2006). measuring globalization, its level actually
seems to be decreasing since the turn of the 353 Mandelson (2010) writes: “[the] credit
343 For that, we might just look to the century. (cf. Arribas, Pérez, and Tortosa- crunch was, in fact, an information crunch: the mar-
clothes we wear and wonder where are they Ausina (2009); Miśkiewicz and Ausloos ket didn't know who had what, or what it was
are ‘made in’(cf. Timmerman, 2012). (2010)). worth. (…) The markets, a transmission mecha-
344 Cf. Toffler (1980). nism, and now indelibly, for better and for worse, a
349 Meadows et al. (2004).
global mechanism, reproduce and magnify human be-
345 As it is noted by Giddens (2004: 52), alt- 350 Cf. Montaner and Muxí (2011). havior: they fail because we are fallible”.
hough economic forces are a part of it, it is
wrong to think they do globalization by their 351 Herod (2009: 82-83). 354 Harvey (2005: 244-245).
own. 355 Jacob (1992: 21).
352 Indeed, a parallelism of the representa-
346 Economic, political, technological, cul- tion issues can also be established with our 356 Others include Sven Markelius, Wallace
tural relations, as with other one might re- neurological bio-mechanisms, which tell us
Harrison, Howard Robertson, Louis Skid-
call, have changed considerably. These can representation is in our very nature, as the
more, Julio Vilamajo, Ssu-Ch'eng Liang, and
be associated with the rise of huge corpora- brain grasps things through images (visual, Max Abramovitz. “The Board of Design took
tions that spread its influence in several tactile or other), i.e. representations, im-
pains to present the design as the unanimous result
countries around the world, dominating the prints, of the surrounding retrieved by the
achieved by this group, and agreed that no individual
major areas of economic activity. The annual different sensory receptors. As neurologists credit should be given to any one architect. But Le
budgets of many of these are larger than found out, perception is the conscious
Corbusier began a campaign after he left New York
those of small governments, resulting in recognition and interpretation of sensori
to claim that the central idea for the UN's design
great influence in the economic and political stimuli. Senses, particularly vision and hear- was his alone” (Dudley, 1994). Indeed his
life of many countries. ing, create representation of the outside
sketches seem to prove so.
Within the giant corporations, the pro- world inside our brains. These sensory expe-
duction process of goods and services has riences are largely built upon illusions that 357 Cf. Eliasson (2012).
become globalized, with often a product be- have been shaped by millions of years of
evolution. (cf. Sweeney, 2011). 358 Cf. UN (2000).
ing made in different parts of the world and
assembled in yet another. This has contrib- Damásio (1996: 105-106) writes: “Brains 359 Cf. UN (2011).
uted to create what social and economic the- can have many intervening steps in the circuits medi-
orists called the new international division of la- ating between stimulus and response, and still have 360 Cf. UN (1948).
bor. Labor intensive production has in many no mind, if they do not meet an essential condition:
361 Cf. Kenna (2008).
cases been ‘delocalized’ to countries where the ability to display images internally and to order
wages and conditions of employment are those images in a process called thought. (The images 362 UN-Habitat (2006).
low. “Examples are found throughout the Far are not solely visual; there are also ‘sound images’,
olfactory images’, and so on.) (…) behaving organ- 363 UN ECOSOC apud Kenna (2008).
East where women and children are employed under
conditions which would be outlawed in Western Eu- isms (…) not all have minds, that is, not all have 364 Cf. UN-HABITAT, 2005 apud HFH
rope and the United States. High value added pro- mental phenomena (…). Some organisms have both (2012).
duction processes such as in the electronics industry behavior and cognition. Some have intelligent actions
takes place in locations with well-paid and highly but no mind. No organism seems to have mind but 365 Cf. (UN-HABITAT, 2006b apud HFH,
skilled labor such as Japan and Western Europe”, no action. (…) Having a mind means that an or- 2012).
among others (ETU, 2007). ganism forms neural representations which can be-
366 Cf. UN-Habitat (2006).
come images, be manipulated in a process called
347 Cf. Kenna (2008). thought, and eventually influence behavior by helping 367 Cf. Krugman (2008).
Seen from above, agents of globaliza- predict the future, plan accordingly, and choose the
tion can be recognized among transnational next action. Herein lies the center of neurobiology as 368 Fulcher (2011).
corporations, World Bank, International Mone- I see it: the process whereby neural representations,
tary Fund, World Trade Organization, G8, World which consist of biological modifications created by
Economic Forum, Bilderberg group, currency and

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