Hey everyone,
Sorry for the delay in my posting. I have been BUSY.
So the building project has officially begun. I know that many of you out there who are considering the grad school decision dilemma might be interested in the process, so I am going to try to keep you up to date from now on. We started on Monday and by Thursday we all had to contribute to site documentation, a huge site model of the neighborhood and research into various topics related to the project. These ranged from climate, program, building systems, history, etc. They were all over the map and quite informative topics. We were all required to make presentations in groups. Although some were better than others, overall they were quite good. I struggled with the short amount of time we were given (as I always do) but that is life in graduate school. The next step is the individual proposals. We have until Monday to design a house for the project, then it becomes more of a group enterprise. The class is divided into 5 groups and we will compete against one another for the 'commision' from the client.
So, I have a request to the archinect community at large. I need some innovative examples of pre-fab. I have always been interested in the idea of pre-fab, but I have never found any compelling projects that have been realized. For my house, I want to explore the idea that the house I develop will be a strategy that can be reproduced on different sites with different climates. Now, I am familiar with the work by Gropius and Bucky, but these projects seem to fail when they run up against the demands of marketing these strategies. So, I know it is short notice, but any and all info/insight/comments would be appreciated.
In addition to pre-fab (which has reached a level of saturation as a way to look at housing) I am interested in the house as a minimum dwelling. Not that this hasn't been done before either (Hannes Myer, Gropius again, etc.) but I haven't seen a contemporary example that takes into account changing lifestyles. Most contemporary proposals revolve around some techno-utopia which is still out of reach for most people (and perhaps not even desirable). So I am looking at ways to minimize program and envelope as well, which ties into the ideas above. So, again, comments and advice are welcome.
That said, I'd better get to work. In addition to the building project, I have a 15 page paper due on Tuesday (took a second year class without considering the scheduling conflicts!)
TTFN
5 Comments
see www.fabprefab.com
might help? includes one of holl's designs
also see shigeru ban's shipping container 'nomadic museaum'
I have some links that might help you:
http://del.icio.us/fishea/humans+legos
In this months issue of dwell magazine there are like three different examples of prefab housing.
prefab is more dead than a billyburg trucker hat on a train track mangled rat.
Gorgeous hand crafted sculptural woodwork is where its at.
Check out the Greene and Greene book in the library and then fire up the milling machine.
Remember that you are housing REAL people, not inanimate cheap plastic chinese commodities on the way to market to be packed in a metal box.
Why does suture have to include "Chinese" in that description? Racist.
I think Kazuhiko Namba does some really interesting housing prototypes -- check out the "Box House" series. All the components are pretty much the same and many spatial techniques are used again and again with a great deal of variety. And stilll, the space feels very warm and human. No one NEEDS hand crafted detail to feel "real." The idea that you are using materials efficiently and creatively feels real to me.
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