Book Review Designin Modular Construction [PDF]

Citation preview

REVIEWS: BOOKS Design in Modular Construction, by Mark Lawson, Ray Ogden and Chris Goodier, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014 Design in Modular Construction, is a well-organized reference book that includes over forty case studies of completed prefabricated buildings. Many historians believe the British, the Japanese, and the Americans, developed the foundational concepts that underlie 21st century modular construction. The three authors, each of them teaching at separate universities in the UK, explore a variety of design techniques, building types, and technical strategies. They have included a wide range of modular buildings, most of them completed in the UK in the last ten to fifteen years. It could be argued that the book serves as a counterpoint to Ryan Smith’s Prefab Architecture, which focuses primarily on the U.S. construction market. Smith’s book offers a similar mix of useful case studies and explanatory images. There is also a clear case for positioning Design in Modular Construction as a follow-up to Gilbert Herbert’s Pioneers of Prefabrication: The British Contribution in the Nineteenth Century, published in 1978. Herbert’s book explains the 19th century British construction industry, emphasizing the innovative thinking that led to the ‘systems’ built strategies later documented in Design in Modular Construction. The British designers and builders that are discussed in Herbert’s Pioneers of Prefabrication were primarily concerned with sending components of buildings (or even complete modular buildings) to various parts of the then burgeoning British Empire. These remote colonies had yet to fully experience the industrial revolution that was radically transforming both British industries and the countryside. The arrival of easy to assemble buildings helped change the building culture in many British colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. It is believed that some British construction techniques became common in these remote colonies after the arrival of prefabricated buildings from the UK. It is probably far more likely that many of these ideas were adapted to fit the labor and materials available in the country. Today, the contemporary British offsite construction industry is one of the most sophisticated in the world. It is focused on optimizing material efficiency and construction schedules, and on articulating the continuously evolving construction logic of various modes of prefabrication. The book’s thorough documentation of various prefab strategies makes a strong case for considering the contemporary UK modular construction sector to be the logical inheritors of the earlier British builders described in Herbert’s book. This new volume helps clarify that specific building types often require unique strategies of offsite construction. The design constraints, code requirements, materials and functional adjacencies can vary substantially depending in the purpose of the building. This book provides insight into some of the modular design ideas that have been developed for various built projects. These strategies typically evolve



over years of trial and error, and sometimes become quite idiosyncratic to the building type. The successful development of these complex buildings requires considerable thought given to construction sequence, and constant attention to the three-dimensional development of component parts. The case studies included the book document some aspects of these patterns of design evolution. In surveys of the general public, the word “prefab” remains unpopular in the UK and the U.S. These surveys often find that the typical person in both countries still prefers conventional, onsite construction – especially when it comes to residential buildings. This lingering concern about the nature of prefab is likely due to shoddy prefabricated construction in both countries during the World War II era, and also during the thirty or forty years after the war. In the last 15 years or so, the modular industries in both countries have slowly but surely improved their reputation for both thoughtful design and quality construction. However, the lingering stigma forces the modular industry in both countries to go ‘stealth,’ developing design strategies that de-emphasize the visual evidence of the offsite nature of the construction. The book is intended for architecture, engineering and construction professionals, but is also structured like a textbook, making it useful for students with a basic understanding of construction and structural design. Prefabricated Systems: Principles of Construction by Knaack, et. al., and Components and Systems: Modular Construction by Staib, et. al. are two other books focused on contemporary buildings, both published by Birkhauser. The Knaack book emphasizes construction systems over case studies, and offers a very nicely illustrated overview of the prefabrication strategies found in Europe and a few other countries beyond Europe. Similarly, the Staib book, which is part of Birkhauser’s Detail series, documents and explains construction details of prefabricated structures from a wider variety of countries, with an emphasis on Europe. Both volumes are beautifully illustrated, perhaps with better drawings and illustrations than Design in Modular Construction, yet neither book provides as much detail into the thought process behind contemporary modular construction, especially in the UK. Design in Modular Construction is an excellent book for classroom use, and a useful resource for architects, engineers or contractors that want to expand their understanding of the current practice of offsite architecture in the UK and beyond.



Review by John Quale, Director and Professor of Architecture, University of New Mexico