The conflict of prefabrication
The conflict of prefabrication is against conventional construction. It is an eternal brawl where it is difficult to see when one could finally defeat his perpetual rival. It is a conflict of economics, place, logistics, capabilities, aspirations, aesthetics, semantics and semiotics; but mainly, it is a conflict of ‘process’. For both, the objective is the same, to build. It is the path that is unsettled. The conflict begins by doing things one way or the other.
Traditionally, designers envision geometrical forms first and then figure out ways to conceive them. It is like walking the construction path backwards to the point where there is no building at all. It is a process that requires going back and forth until the optimal solution is found.
In contrast, the prefabrication perspective challenges this anfractuous practice by looking for a straightforward solution based on logic rather than trial and error. A solution not for a single building, but for all to come.
This abstract thinking has been embraced by determined optimistic geniuses, headed in theory and practice by Walter Gropius. Undoubtedly, prefabrication has won its place in the Architectural narrative thanks to elemental figures, like Le Corbusier, Buckminster Fuller, Jean Prouvé, Kisho Kurokawa, Frank Lloyd Wright and Michael Hopkins. None of them escaped the challenges and riddles that the still fully unexplored path of prefabrication holds.
The last hundred years have been filled with fascinating examples of prefabricated buildings all around the globe. However, half a century away from their golden era some of these buildings are considered too old to be kept in optimal conditions, too new to be listed as historic landmarks, or too common to be considered Architecture. The Reasons Offsite is giving a well-deserved space to this niche, giving us the opportunity to explore a selection of key buildings in a very intimate manner.
Today, over half of the construction elements are produced off-site with levels of technological sophistication never seen before. Once again, prefabrication is promised as the solution to tackle economic, social and environmental problems associated with construction, turning factories and warehouses into architectural workshops. Therefore, now more than ever it is important to look back and learn from those who have explored this path before, and let their work guide our design towards a brighter Architecture.
This text form part of the ‘Reasons Off-site’ — an immaterial exhibition curated by Summary Architecture of Porto, which has been touring across Europe and is now exhibited in Matosinhos, The project presents a collection of building systems of significance in the historical evolution of modular and prefabricated architecture.
