Prefabricated or industrialized
building systems can vary from small building parts and pieces to entire
factory produced buildings. Since the late 1800s industrialized
production methods have completely reformed building culture. Systems have been
added to buildings in order to increase architecture’s comfort and hospitality.
With the introduction of mechanical systems, construction evolved into an entanglement
of catalogued disparately produced pieces. Complete integrated and
industrialized systems have remained fairly marginal in their application in
typical construction. One of the enduring inhibitors of a greater market share
for factory made buildings is the proprietary nature of their components.
Factory produced systems often are regulated closed loops and their adaptability
over time is difficult as parts which need to be replaced, serviced or adapted
are unobtainable as companies evolve, change or even fold.
Building systems such as structure
and envelope and particularly mechanical systems are rarely produced with the
idea of change in mind. Buildings are generally designed as fixed prototypes affording
little retrofitting options. As building culture evolves and lifestyles
multiply it seems more than ever desirable to imagine building components that
can be produced and used in an interchangeable fashion at either a micro or
macro scale to allow open interaction and universal adaptability over time.
Further, the potential to share and integrate mass-produced parts into any
building strategy makes an argument for an open source methodology applied to
building construction.
Whether contemporary or
historic examples, systems that facilitate change have been part of
architectural theory since modernity as the open plan associated with modern
architecture was ground zero for buildings that allow for change. The next ten
prefabrication experiments will look closely at the interaction between
building parts, systems, integration and the potential for change at every
scale from infrastructure to interior fittings. From the perspectives of change
and open source architecture we will pay particular interest to building
components that imagine innovative ways of producing adaptable spaces. The
moveable electrical outlet produced in the 1940s known as the Electrostrip exemplifies
this conceptual framework. Using the common baseboard as a network for wiring
and for spatial organisation electrical outlets are positioned and repositioned
with ease with no re-wiring required.
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| The reconfigurable electrical outlet - Electrostrip |
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