While walking around during the opening of the latest architecturally-themed MoMA show, Home Delivery,I was awed by how fresh and daring work that is over forty years old still feels today. The work that most stood out to me was done in the 1960s and 1970s when pre-fab moved out of the unit-to-be-built-anywhere mode to the design of systems that create holistic urban environments. These projects include Richard J. Dietrich and Bernd Steigerwald's Metastadt-Bausystem, Archigram's Plug-In City, and Paul Rudolph's Oriental Masonic Gardens. These were projects that sought to radically change the role of the designer from the sole production of objects to the careful manipulation of many already-mades (the humble mobile home in Paul Rudolph's example) to create new social and political spaces.
As architectural designers we know that pre-fab is technically possible and instinctually we feel that in a world of growing populations and diminishing resources pre-fab makes sense. The problem is that many of these urban projects of the 60s and 70s never came to fruition and in more contemporary work (from the 1990s on) seen in the MoMA exhibit, architects are reverting to the pre-60s struggle to technically and aesthetically improve the pre-fab unit, rather than designing the most inhabitable pre-fab city (and all the architectural, infrastructural, and landscape elements necessary to create it). However, a closer look at the exhibit reveals that since the industrial revolution, much of the technical work in pre-fab units coming from the best and brightest in the design field has inadvertently been used to facilitate the sprawling growth of suburbs. Much of this work leads to technologies that allow for faster and cheaper construction, and often the technologies are picked up by a commercial world that is always hungry for expediency, while the lofty ideals behind the technologies are seldom noted.
Yet one cannot shake the feeling that within the almost 200 years worth of work exhibited at the MoMA there is an unachieved promise -- that of a new, inexpensive, socially responsible, and environmentally adequate way of living. In a world where people are asking for increased interactivity with everything from music to politics, designers must lead with new pre-fab thinking that goes well beyond the design of the individual pre-fab house to cause a holistic shift in the way we live.
More on Pre-fab In Archinect:
PreFabapalooza
shipping containers as housing
prefab
emergency housing
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Pratt Institute DeanDSGN AGNC founder Quilian (pronounced: Killian) is the Dean of Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture, working across the school’s architecture, landscape, urban design, planning, and management programs. Quilian also serves as the Vice President for Architecture ...
8 Comments
Sweetness....
well said!
simply put, eloquently said to all involved!
Quil great continuance, I'm really getting excited about the potential of OP-ED...Nam/Orhan looking out for more
yeah archi, i had been thinking about writing something along these lines for a while and was happy when I saw your OpEd last week as I knew we would have a cohesive conversation. These are important issues and an important show that seems to be daring architects to finally go for it. However, describing the it will be important lest we continue to inadvertently feed sprawl.
And what do the architects that "must lead with new pre-fab thinking" get?
An imperative is pretty useless without an incentive, isn't it?
Utopia is dead! Long live Utopia!
serving, first off, yesterday's dictionary.com word of the day was quondam.
second, I think that we get cultural relevancy. Right now the work of architects seems remote to most people, this could be a way for us to frame a re-entrance to the suburbs and American's everyday life while giving them increased control over their urban environment.
third, did you make it to Teddy Cruz's opening?
Quilian, Heather Ring was the last person to tell me when quondam was the word of the day.
I did not make it to Teddy Cruz's opening. Stating that I was going to be there was complete wishfulness on my part.
Generating lots of money is the key to cultural relevance these days. Antiques Roadshow, etc., etc. Even Obama.
Do Americans actually want more control over their urban environment? Probably not if it's just going to cost more.
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