Strategies for domestic space flexibility a perspetive set from the tectonics of prefabrication

Author: Barbara Leite

Abstract

The present work proposal intends to highlight prefabrication solutions as a way to introduce flexibility in the domestic space. It is believed that in the combination of traditional building systems and new prefabrication approaches there may be an opportunity to propose “new” ways of inhabiting, manifestly through the integration of prefabrication systems as a strategy of flexibility in the housing space.

The research will start from the post-war experiments in response to the housing problem, in order to establish a historical view of prefabrication methods up to the present day. The objective is maninly to focus on the elaboration of a critical and prospective map of different case studies and construction systems in Europe, with incursions of case studies in the United States and Japan, countries with tradition in the application of these systems, as a way to extract logics, strategies and mechanisms of domestic space flexibility. As a result, it is expected that the research proposes a flexibility reading matrix, through the combination of different types and prefabrication systems, as a way of activating “new” ways of living.

Keywords: Prefabrication, industrialization, flexibility, domestic space, tectonics, modularity, building systems