Modularize Your Architecture at Modular Architecture Group
The next meeting of the San Diego AIA’s Modular Architecture Group will be an open discussion regarding when and how to modularize your designs. Bring one of your current projects for a roundtable discussion on its merits as a potential modular construction, and how conversion can be accomplished. Projects that make good candidates for modularization include: multi-family housing, student housing, classrooms, hotels and hospital patient wings.
All AIA members are welcome to join the meeting.
Brown Bag Roundtable: Modular Architecture
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 — 12:00 – 1:30PM
AIA San Diego Chapter Office
AIA San Diego: http://www.aiasandiego.org
Modular Architecture Q&A: Modular Shapes
Below is the next post, number 6, in the continuing series of prefab/modular Q&A asked by Norman Gray, a graduate student at the New School of Architecture and Design in San Diego, CA and answered by James B. Guthrie, AIA, President of Miletus Group, Inc.
Question:
How can prefab modules be designed so that they are not only rectangular or limited to prefabricated looks like stacked blocks?
Answer:
That is an easy one. Owners and developers who want to build prefab or modular architecture should hire an architect. There is no question that the supply chain in the US has been stuck with boring boxy forms. However, this has more to do with a lack of creative pressure than anything else. While the analogy to Lego® blocks can be fun, there is nothing that requires prefabrication of building components to be as repetitive in form as rectilinear blocks. Blocks do have some efficiencies, but they are minimal. A creative architect who understands how prefab building is done can come up with non-rectilinear forms that can be built as easily as common box forms.
Related link: http://www.newschoolarch.edu
© Miletus Group, Inc. 2012
