Inside PrefabThe Ready-made InteriorDeborah Schneiderman

Princeton Architectural Press, New York

Published byPrinceton Architectural Press37 East Seventh StreetNew York, New York 10003

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© 2012 Princeton Architectural PressAll rights reservedPrinted and bound in China15 14 13 12 4 3 2 1 First edition

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An earlier version of the Introduction, written by Deborah Schneiderman, appeared as “The Prefabricated Interior: Defining the Topic” in Interiors: Design, Architecture, Culture 2, no. 2 (2011).

Editor: Nicola Bednarek BrowerDesigner: Jan Haux

Special thanks to: Bree Anne Apperley, Sara Bader, Janet Behning, Fannie Bushin, Megan Carey, Carina Cha, Tom Cho, Penny (Yuen Pik) Chu, Russell Fernandez, Felipe Hoyos, Linda Lee, Jennifer Lippert, John Myers, Katharine Myers, Margaret Rogalski, Dan Simon, Andrew Stepanian, Paul Wagner, Joseph Weston, and Deb Wood of Princeton Architectural Press —Kevin C. Lippert, publisher

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schneiderman, Deborah, 1968–Inside prefab / Deborah Schneiderman. — 1st ed.p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-56898-987-7 (alk. paper)1. Prefabricated interior architecture. I. Title.NA2850.S34 2012729—dc23 2011021974

Table of Contents

Foreword

by Stanley Abercrombie

Acknowledgments

Introduction

A Very Brief History of Prefabrication

A Brief History of Prefabricated Interior Design

Interior Walls

Flatform

Active Phytoremediation Wall System

Blobwall

S3 Sustainable Slotted System

Kitchens

Closet #1, Parsons Kitchen

Oma’s Rache

Flow2

Ekokook

Bathrooms

Cirrus MVR

The Flo

Kullman Bathroom PODS

Co-Pod

Furniture

After Words

90° Furniture

Kenchikukagu

Playground for Leif

Office

Clipper CS-1

Office POD

Dilbert’s Ultimate Cubicle

OfficePOD

Prefabricated House Interiors

Furniture House

A–Z Cellular Compartment Units

Composite House

Cell Brick House

Glossary

Notes

Select Bibliography

Image Credits

Index

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45

46

50

54

58

63

64

68

72

76

81

82

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104

108

112

117

118

122

126

130

134

136

138

140

142

6

7

8

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6

Foreword

By Stanley Abercrombie

I have a shelf full of books on prefabricated build-

ings and a whole wall of titles on interiors, but,

seeing this manuscript, I realized with surprise

that I had never before seen a book on prefab-

ricated interiors. The reason, of course, is not

because the subject is so obscure, but because

it is so obvious. Throughout the industrial age,

building components have been turned out by the

hundreds and thousands in factories and shipped

ready-made to building sites, including dimension

lumber, windows and doors, sheets of plywood,

metal flues, cylinder-printed fabrics and wallpa-

pers, baseboards and cornices, tiles and drawer

pulls, and light switches. This construction reality

is so familiar and so quotidian as to be virtually

invisible.

But the more important point this book

makes is that prefabrication, while often focused

on structural elements, has had its most profound

effect on our interiors. Indeed, some prefabricated

exteriors go to great lengths to appear as if they

had never been near a factory, while inside we

have come to welcome the order, modularity, effi-

ciency, and precision that prefabrication can bring.

Interior prefabrication has a long and

intriguing history, as this book’s introduction

shows, but it also has a bright and even more

intriguing future. The book’s two dozen case stud-

ies demonstrate the new looks, new materials, and

new potential functions of interior prefabrication,

not the least interesting of which are those dealing

with our increasingly urgent environmental issues.

7

Acknowledgments

Nicola Bednarek Brower, my editor, for her

dedication. Princeton Architectural Press for its

support in realizing this project. The designers and

photographers of included work. The faculty and

administration of the Interior Design department

and the School of Art and Design at Pratt Institute

for their belief in this project. The students of the

Arizona State University Interior Design program

and Master of Science in Design Program 2007–

2010 for their work on the topic “Prefabricated

Interior Environment.” The faculty, administration,

and students of Parsons The New School for

Design Master of Fine Arts Interior Design thesis

class of 2011 for their inspiration. The faculty

and administration of the Herberger Institute for

Design and the Arts at Arizona State University

for their encouragement. Renata Hejduk for her

sage advice and wisdom. Deborah Koshinsky

and Alexa Griffith Winton for reading drafts of

the manuscript. Jennifer Siegal for inspiring my

research and for connecting me with Princeton

Architectural Press. Stanley Abercrombie for his

contribution to the field and to this project. My

family—Scott, Chloe, and Eli Lizama; and Gerald,

Reeta, and Jonathan Schneiderman—for their love

and encouragement.

Dedicated in memory of Norma Lizama for

her strength, will, love, and support. Without her I

would not have been in a place to write this book.

8

Introduction

Prefabrication in the field of architecture is by no

means a novel concept and has enjoyed continued

attention by prominent architects and designers,

owing much of its popularity to its efficiency and

affordability. Recent prefabricated designs also

emphasize the inherently sustainable qualities of

this production technique. While the investigation

into modern prefabrication has attracted much

interest in the architecture community for over

a century, the literature documenting the sig-

nificance of interior design and interior elements

using this technology contains a notable gap.

Although there has been virtually no pointed dis-

cussion of the influence of prefabricated interiors,

the techniques and applications of prefabricated

interior design have been around for thousands

of years, and prefabrication in the built environ-

ment in fact owes much of its advancement to

concepts first investigated for use in the interior.

Innovations in prefabricated interior design have

ranged from individual elements, such as wall

panels, staircases, or pieces of furniture, to com-

plete assemblages, such as kitchens, bathrooms, or

utility pods. These components are often more than

simple objects, defining and programming space,

either as complete prefabricated assemblies or

through the fabrication and repetition of a module.

Prefabricated interiors thus become place-makers

within the built environment.

A Very Brief History of Prefabrication

Prefabrication, or off-site fabrication, refers to parts

of a building, interior or exterior, that are produced

and assembled in a place other than the building

site (typically a controlled factory environment).

Ideally, components are fabricated simultaneously

in various locations and fully assembled into the

whole at the building site, reducing total construc-

tion time and costs and creating a more precisely

constructed end product. Building off site in a

controlled environment limits waste in materials

and inefficiencies in labor, while the fabrication of

modular elements that can easily be transported

allows for adaptability of installation, extending

the lifespan of building elements.

The term prefabrication, used to describe a

building typology, was not coined until the 1930s,

when the business of making building compo-

nents that could be assembled on a remote site

developed into a substantial industry, although

the process of prefabrication has existed for

thousands of years.1 The earliest known example

of prefabrication in the built environment can be

dated back to the Sweet Track—a raised walkway

in Somerset County in England built around 3807

BCE and made of prefabricated timber sections

that were quickly assembled on site.2 Another

important instance of prefabricated architecture

was the panelized wood houses that were shipped

from England to the United States in the mid-sev-

enteenth century to be used for the quick con-

struction of homes in a Cape Ann, Massachusetts,

fishing fleet community.3

The first documented mass-produced

prefabricated house was the Manning Portable

Cottage, introduced in 1830 and transported from

England to Australia for the construction of its

new settlements.4 [Fig. 1] These houses resembled

cabins, with the interior not differing much from

the exterior. A prefabricated building can also be a

unique, site-specific structure, such as the Crystal

Palace (1851) in London, which was built of pre-

fabricated iron modules. [Fig. 2]

The twentieth century saw a rise of mass-

produced prefabricated houses, and many of the

great modernist architects, including Le Corbusier,

Marcel Breuer, R. Buckminster Fuller, Frank Lloyd

Wright, Walter Gropius, and Konrad Wachsmann,

explored the idea of prefabrication as a building

technique. [Fig. 3] [Fig. 4] While their houses did not

9

Introduction

sell to the public in large quantities, vernacular

prefabricated designs have achieved the goal of

mass production, from the Sears, Roebuck and

Company’s catalog kit homes of the first half of

the twentieth century to mass-produced modular

homes, such as the Lustron House, of the mid-

twentieth century to prefabricated trailers begin-

ning in the latter part of the twentieth century and

continuing to the present.

The Lustron House, introduced by Carl

Strandlund, president of the Lustron Corporation,

in 1946, in particular demonstrates the signifi-

cance of the interior in the history of prefabri-

cation. The house’s built-in elements consisted

of a system of prefabricated modular units that

functioned not only as dividing elements, but also

as programmed space, such as shelving, cabinetry,

closets, and vanities. [Fig. 5] The interior panels

were manufactured of the same porcelain-

enameled steel panels that covered the facade

[Fig. 2] The Last Promenade at the Crystal Palace, The Illustrated London News, May 1852

[Fig. 1] Manning Portable Cottage, ca. 1833

10

Introduction

[Fig. 3] R. Buckminster Fuller’s Wichita (Dymaxion) House, interior view, 1946

[Fig. 4] Wichita (Dymaxion) House, exterior view

[Fig. 5] Lustron House, advertisement, Life, October 11, 1948

[Fig. 6] Sears Modern Home 115, Sears Catalog, 1908

11

Introduction

and roof, establishing a clear visual connection

between the interior and exterior.5 Although the

Lustron House did not achieve its goal of true

mass production, the integration and significant

placement of its interior components informed the

evolution of the prefabricated interior.

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first

century, many well-known designers turned to

prefabrication, including those that pursue afford-

able, efficient, and environmentally sustainable

solutions, such as LOT-EK, Wes Jones, Michelle

Kaufmann, Su11 architecture + design, Anderson

and Anderson, KieranTimberlake, Adam Kalkin,

and Jennifer Siegal, among others. Artist/architect

Kalkin, for example, repurposes shipping contain-

ers as dwellings, as in his 12 Container House

(2003) and his Quik House (2003), which is cur-

rently available to order. Siegal’s Office of Mobile

Design (OMD) has also repurposed material, as

demonstrated in the 2003 Seatrain Residence

(Los Angeles), using shipping containers for the

fabrication of living spaces and grain containers

for the construction of a lap pool and koi pond,

as well as incorporating steel found on site. Based

on the notions of new nomadism and mobility,

many of Siegal’s projects explore architecture at

the intersection of portability and sustainabil-

ity. Siegal’s 2006 prefabricated ShowHouse, for

example, exhibits ideas of portability and flexibil-

ity and incorporates environmentally sustainable

design solutions, including solar panels, radiant

heat panels, a tankless water heater, and a variety

of sustainable floor and wall materials.

A Brief History of Prefabricated Interior Design

The articulation of the prefabricated interior

has been critical in the development of modern

prefabrication techniques. The design of interior

partitions or walls; of whole spaces, including

the bathroom, the kitchen, and the office; and of

furniture has both contributed to defining interior

space through placement and program and been

a critical step in the development of prefabricated

construction techniques on a greater scale, from

the building to the city. Prefabricated interior

design includes both distinct elements and pre-

fabricated wholes. Interior components, such as

decorative elements, staircases, and mantles, have

a long tradition of prefabrication. Even gypsum

board, which was introduced in the early

twentieth-century Sears kit homes, serves as an

example of an interior element that is fabricated

off site and brought to the house ready to install.6

[Fig. 6] In general, prefabricated interior compo-

nents follow three basic construction types, which

are used singularly or combined. These include

planar construction (utilizing the screen as a

planar element to divide space, either as a rela-

tively fixed or readily movable object), modular

construction (using the module —a standardized

component of a system—as a building block of

customizable prefabricated space), and unit con-

struction (employing a singular unit element that

is designed as an all-inclusive piece).

Planar Construction: the Screen

The earliest example of a prefabricated interior

element is the screen. Although most people

associate the advent of the paper screen with

Japan, the first paper folding screen appeared in

China, with literary references dating its inception

back to 300 or 400 BCE, far predating the first

prefabricated houses. The relatively permanent

Chinese screens evolved into the Japanese shoji,

a system of screens dating to as early as 200 BCE.

12

These folding, fixed, or sliding screens could be

used to create walls, doors, window coverings,

and standing partitions. In the West, the screen

was first introduced in the mid-sixteenth century,

but it did not gain popularity until the nineteenth

century, when, in 1853, the American government

sponsored a trip by Commodore Matthew Perry

to Japan to inspire a trade relationship between

the East and the West. From this visit began the

importation of Japanese and Chinese screens to

European cities. Also increasing their popular-

ity was their display at the 1867 International

Exhibition for Industry and Art in Paris.7

During the twentieth century the screen

was most notably used as an architectonic

domestic interior element in the works of Frank

Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Gerrit Rietveld,

Eileen Gray, and Charles and Ray Eames. The

Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto with its movable

exterior and interior walls, its interchangeability of

modular components, and its use of prefabrication

in particular inspired Gropius, who experimented

with similar concepts and techniques in his living

spaces. Rietveld created perhaps the most influ-

ential translation of the Japanese-style screening

of interior space in his archetypal de Stijl mas-

terpiece of 1924, the Schröder House (Utrecht,

the Netherlands). In a remarkable manner, the

Schröder House defined interior space through

the implementation of sliding walls, much like

those of a traditional Japanese residence, result-

ing in a highly flexible modernist living space.

Similarly, Gray’s architectural projects, including

her seminal E. 1027 house (Roquebrune-Cap-

Martin, 1925–29) and the apartment on rue

Chateaubriand (Paris, 1931), utilized the screen

as a primary place-making element.8 While

throughout her career, Gray made screens from

an array of materials, she is best known for her

1923 Lacquered Block Screen, whose finish and

fabrication is reminiscent of Japanese screens.9

[Fig. 7] Charles and Ray Eames broadly investigated

the topic of prefabrication, resulting in numer-

ous works, including the iconic 1946 undulating

plywood folding screen.10 [Fig. 8]

Two significant sustainable twenty-first-

century screens combine planar and modular

construction in their design. Nomad (2007) by

Jaime Salm and Roger Allen (of Mio) is a system of

recycled, recyclable, and affordable two-dimen-

sional cardboard modular elements that assemble

without tools or hardware into customizable

screens or partitions. [Fig. 9] [Fig. 10] Andrew Wilson

and Aza Raskin’s Bloxes (2008), designed by Jef

Raskin, are also fabricated from two-dimensional

cardboard elements, which are folded into three-

dimensional modules and assembled into any

shape; the screen is only one of many possibili-

ties. [Fig. 11] [Fig. 12]

In the commercial environment, it was

not until the 1950s that office design incorpo-

rated prefabricated screen-based wall systems

to divide space, as evidenced in the Skidmore,

Owings & Merrill (SOM)/Knoll–designed interiors

for the 1957 Connecticut General Life Insurance

Company.11 The German Quickborner Team revo-

lutionized the use of the screen in prefabricated

office space in the 1950s with their concept of a

Bürolandschaft. This “office landscape” utilized

a system of lightweight screens that could easily

be reconfigured as individual and organizational

needs changed.12

The Herman Miller Company, in particu-

lar designers Robert Probst and George Nelson,

has been credited with the design of the cubicle.

The company’s 1964 modular Action Office is

considered by many as the first prefabricated

office space. Through his rigorous research, Probst

developed the concept and plan for the flex-

ible movable furniture system, which was given

three-dimensional form by Nelson.13 [Fig. 13] While

the design for the original Action Office received

Introduction

13

Introduction

[Fig. 7] Black lacquer Brick screen, one of a small number of variants executed by Eileen Gray of the design first exhibited in 1923

[Fig. 8] Eames Molded Plywood Folding Screen, Charles and Ray Eames, 1946

[Fig. 9] Nomad Screen modules, Jaime Salm and Roger Allen (of Mio), 2007

[Fig. 10] Nomad Screen assembled

14

Introduction

[Fig. 11] Bloxes modules, Jef Raskin, Bloxes, 2008

[Fig. 12] Bloxes assembled

[Fig. 13] Action Office I, Robert Probst and George Nelson for Herman Miller Company, 1964

[Fig. 14] Action Office II (when first released), Robert Probst for Herman Miller Company, 1968

[Fig. 15] Resolve system, Ayse Birsel for Herman Miller Company, 1999

[Fig. 16] Joyn, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Vitra, 2002

15

much critical acclaim, it did not sell well, and the

Herman Miller Company proceeded to develop

Action Office II, a lightweight, interchangeable,

and easily reconfigured office system.14, 15 The

prefabricated partition screen of the Action Office

II, introduced in 1968, was structural, freestand-

ing, and movable.16 [Fig. 14] A contemporary office

system by Herman Miller Company, the Resolve

system (1999), designed by Ayse Birsel, reestab-

lishes a critical element of the original cubicle,

Probst’s concept of using 120-degree angles

between screen panels.17 [Fig. 15] By incorporating

canopies in her workstations, Birsel has advanced

the notion of the prefabricated office space a step

further, recognizing that the typically ignored

overhead plane is critical to the construction of

three-dimensional space.

Twenty-first-century screen-based prefab-

ricated office designs continue to pursue adapt-

ability within office environments, as evidenced

in notable diversions from the standard cubicle

model. Examples include communal worktables,

such as Vitra’s 2002 planar Joyn system designed

by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec [Fig. 16], and the

consciously sustainable mass-customizable 2004

Dirtt (Doing It Right This Time) demountable wall,

floor, electrical, and accessory system designed

by Mogens Smed. Such systems challenge the

permanence of the traditionally constructed wall,

embracing instead the prefabrication of a system

of parts that can be readily configured and recon-

figured on site.

The use of screens has also informed exte-

rior elements, both structural and nonstructural.

According to architectural historian Colin Davies,

prefabricated planar constructions were first evi-

denced in architecture in 1833. With the balloon

framing construction, walls can be assembled on or

off site horizontally on the ground from studs and

plates. Once assembled, the wall panels are lifted

into place. Tract houses today are still built using

balloon or platform construction, with prebuilt inte-

rior and exterior panels trucked to the job site ready

to assemble. Descended from the balloon frame,

structural insulated panels (SIPs) are made of insu-

lating foam core that is sandwiched between two

sheets of plywood or oriented strand board. SIPs

were first introduced in 1935 but did not become

readily available until the 1960s. Advancing CAD/

CAMM technologies in the 1990s made their

implementation more practical. The planar screen-

like elements, which are produced off site, are used

to fabricate both interior and exterior structural and

nonstructural walls.18

The screen is completely exteriorized in

curtain wall constructions, which first appeared in

the late nineteenth century and were increasingly

implemented after World War II. The introduction

of skeletal framing systems released the require-

ment for the exterior wall to be load bearing,

enabling the nonstructural panels or screens of the

curtain wall to—like their interior counterparts—

programmatically function as dividers, separating

interior from exterior.19

Modular Construction

The module plays an important role in Japanese

interior design. Traditionally, the design of the

Japanese house relied on a regularized post and

beam system, allowing for the interior elements,

including shoji, fusuma, and tatami, to be manu-

factured by individual craftspeople and assembled

seamlessly on site.20 Proportional prefabricated

building systems are recorded in Japan as early

as the Nara period (710–794 CE), though the

measurements varied by region. The kiwari jutsu

system (dating to 1608) defines the modulariza-

tion of space from the scale of the building itself

to that of furniture elements, even including the

proportions of the shoji screen. The tatami module

has an overarching architectural significance in

the system, as the mats are utilized as units of

Introduction

16

measure. Room dimensions are described by the

number of tatami that fit inside.21 [Fig. 17]

The module also has a prominent place in

Western design. One of the most basic architec-

tural modules is the brick, while in interior design

systems of modules are used in any number of

elements, from furniture to kitchens to office envi-

ronments. On its own, the module, like the brick,

typically does not serve its intended function.

However, when repeated, it can create defined

spatial environments. Modules constitute the basis

for much of the prefabricated interior.

Within the domestic interior the module

is most significantly represented in the design of

kitchens and furniture. The systematic design of

the kitchen was first pursued by home econo-

mists in the United States as an academic and

scientific endeavor, incorporating a multitude of

studies in efficiency and workspace organization.

Later, architects also laid claim to kitchen design;

their approach embraced rationalist-functionalist

principles and machine aesthetics.22 It is not

surprising then that the kitchen has been a vehicle

for exploration of the mechanics of prefabrica-

tion in architecture and interior design. Early

investigations into the design of the kitchen by

educator Catherine Beecher and writer Harriet

Beecher Stowe in the nineteenth century stemmed

from the desire to professionalize the work of the

housewife.23 Their proposed kitchen, the “sink

and cooking form,” is credited as a predecessor

of the twentieth-century kitchen, driven in large

part by the necessity for organized storage. The

sink and cooking form was not merely a piece of

furniture but foreshadows the prefabricated pack-

aged kitchen of the mid-twentieth century with

an integrated mechanical core, including water

heating and ventilation systems.24 While it was

not itself prefabricated nor did it really gain wide

acceptance, its concept inspired the designers that

followed.25 [Fig. 18]

Around the turn of the twentieth century,

both Lillian Gilbreth, industrial engineer and

designer, and Christine Frederick, home econo-

mist, lecturer, and author, recognized that in order

for a kitchen to work efficiently, it must allow

for adaptability, which was achieved through a

modular design.26 With her 1926 Frankfurt kitchen

design, Margarete (Grete) Schütte-Lihotzky is

credited as the designer of the modern kitchen.27

The Frankfurt kitchen is a hybrid of the modular

and unit typologies. [Fig. 19] Its individual elements

are modular by nature, but those elements were

assembled into a complete kitchen off site, which

was then integrated into the larger structure.28 The

Frankfurt kitchen established the significance and

potential of modern interior prefabricated ele-

ments and foreshadowed contemporary prefabri-

cation techniques. Today developer firms such as

First Penthouse, founded in 1992, expand on the

Frankfurt kitchen’s concept of installing a com-

plete environment into a site-fabricated building,

constructing complete apartment modules off site

that, like the Frankfurt kitchen, are craned into

place on site, in the case of First Penthouse the

rooftop of a previously constructed building.29

In 1945 Helen E. McCullough, associ-

ate professor of home economics at Cornell

University, differentiated the typology of the pack-

aged kitchen of the mid-twentieth century from

the unit kitchen, defining the packaged kitchen as

one in which the manufacturer sells all necessary

equipment in one package—typically a modular

system with its own structural frame—and the

unit kitchen as a cast element that includes all

equipment and cabinetry.30 The modular and

unit versions of these prefabricated kitchens are

capable of transforming any room into a modern

kitchen regardless of the given architectural condi-

tion, as neither relies on the existing structure.

Charles C. White’s 1946 kitchen, called The White

Kitchen Compact, and the visionary 1953 Cornell

Introduction

17

Introduction

[Fig. 17] Tatami proportion

[Fig. 18] Sink and cooking form, Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1869

[Fig. 19] Frankfurt kitchen, Margarete (Grete) Schütte-Lihotzky, 1926

18

Introduction

[Fig. 20] Cornell Kitchen packaging and transportation concept, Glen Beyer, Mary Koll Heiner, and Cornell University students, 1953

[Fig. 21] Cornell Kitchen construction, 1953

[Fig. 22] Glenn Beyer standing in the Cornell Kitchen, 1953

[Fig. 23] Universal Kitchen Snack Station, faculty and students, Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Industrial Design departments, Rhode Island School of Design, 1998

19

Kitchen represent the modular packaged typol-

ogy. While the former was primarily concerned

with efficiencies of construction, the design of the

latter also focused on user needs and ergonom-

ics. The Cornell Kitchen was executed through

Cornell University’s Housing Research Center

as a collaborative effort among the students,

Home Economics Associate Professor Mary Koll

Heiner, and Glenn Beyer, director of the center

and professor of housing and design. The basic

kitchen functions were grouped into five prefabri-

cated movable “centers”—mix, serve, range, sink,

refrigerator/oven—which could be arranged in any

configuration and adjusted in height, and com-

prised a self-supporting structural system. With the

exception of the sink center, they had identical

base cabinets so that inner organizational compo-

nents were interchangeable.31 [Fig. 20] [Fig. 21]

[Fig. 22] A contemporary example that similarly

addresses vertical dimension is the Rhode Island

School of Design’s 1998 Universal Kitchen

project, which resulted in the Min and the Max

kitchen, essentially kits of interchangeable

modular components. Each element is chosen by

the user and can be installed at varying heights

and depths. [Fig. 23] Today’s standard kitchens are

typically constructed from modularized pieces of

rational measurements constructed off site but are

installed at a fixed standard height.

The design of furniture also has a rich

history of modular construction. A 1909 Sears,

Roebuck and Company catalog already adver-

tised mass-produced sectional bookcases, but Le

Corbusier (along with Breuer) has been cred-

ited as the first architect to conceive of modu-

lar furniture and thus of prefabricated interior

space.32 Le Corbusier, with Pierre Jeanerette and

later Charlotte Perriand, developed the Casier

Standard, a system of modular container elements,

in 1925.33 Envisioned to serve all storage needs

through various elements of storage available

within the system, the Casier Standard was also

designed to define space in the open plan house.

Like Le Corbusier, Breuer had his roots in interior

and furniture design and experimented with the

module in his 33 design of 1925. The Breuer

0system was based on a measure of thirty-three

centimeters and comprised small modular cabi-

nets that could be placed against the wall, hung

from the wall, or supported on tubular steel legs.

These modules appeared in virtually all of his

commissions going forward.34

In the mid-twentieth century, Nelson,

the Eameses, and the Herman Miller Company

devised several modular furniture systems. Nelson

conceptualized his 1944 visionary Storagewall as

a built-in element that would not only house all

storage necessary for the home within the typical

space of a wall but would also entirely replace

the wall with modular furniture-like elements.

The Storagewall is customizable by design, as

the modules are selected by the user and can be

assembled in any arrangement or direction, thus

creating the opportunity to serve two rooms at

once.35 The Storagewall is reminiscent of, yet more

inclusive than, the prefabricated built-in ele-

ments of the Lustron House. It also foreshadowed

Shigeru Ban’s 1995 Furniture House, in which the

prefabricated built-in elements become the actual

structure of the house.

The Eames Storage Units (ESUs) of 1950

were the first mass-produced mass-customizable

storage elements. Their back and side panels

were available in multiple materials, including

Masonite and perforated aluminum, and were

available for order in an array of colors. ESUs can

be combined as shelves or desks with open (or

closed) storage in addition to drawers, creating an

infinite range of possible configurations.36 [Fig. 24]

[Fig. 25] In a marked departure from his predeces-

sors, Joe Colombo’s 1969 Tube Chair and 1967

Addition seating system are highly customizable,

Introduction

20

Introduction

[Fig. 24] Eames Storage Units brochure, Charles and Ray Eames, 1950

[Fig. 25] Eames Storage Units, 1950

[Fig. 26] Tube Chair, Joe Colombo, 1967 [Fig. 27] Cell Brick House, interior, Yasuhiro Yamashita/Atelier Tekuto, 2004

[Fig. 28] Hoosier Manufacturing Company advertisement for the Hoosier Kitchen Cabinet, 1919

21

composed of modular upholstered elements that

are nonfunctional and nonrecognizable as single

elements.37 [Fig. 26] Yasuhiro Yamashita’s (of Atelier

Tekuto) 2004 Cell Brick House is a culminating

investigation of prefabricated modular furniture

as place-maker. The typologies of the module as

programmatic interior element and as a building

block are fused in the house, as its construction

relies on the modular furniture, which becomes its

structure. [Fig. 27]

The Unit

The unit is often confused with the module as a

building block. As a primary defining element

of prefabricated interior design, however, the

term describes elements that are created in their

entirety as single all-inclusive pieces. For example,

the unit kitchens of the 1950s consisted of a single

object housing all elements necessary for the

kitchen, including cabinetry and appliances.

As early as the 1890s, the United States

witnessed the first unit-based prefabricated

kitchen furniture elements in the form of factory-

produced freestanding “dressers” that were

designed to store kitchen equipment and dry

goods. These dressers or wardrobes foreshadowed

the prefabricated packaged unit kitchens of the

mid-twentieth century in that they were originally

designed as large all-inclusive elements. Among

the manufacturers of this early kitchen furniture

was the Hoosier Manufacturing Company, which,

influenced by Beecher’s designs, produced a

variety of kitchen cabinets. The Hoosier Kitchen

Cabinets, which were often on wheels, included

clearly defined areas of storage for all kitchen

needs, as well as pull-out work areas, bins for

sugar and flour, and a rotating spice rack with

jars.38 [Fig. 28] At the 1931 German Building

Exhibition in Berlin, modernist designer Lilly

Reich exhibited a fixed cabinet-type kitchen in her

Apartment for a Single Person that demonstrated

the rational principles of domestic reformers

Christine Frederick and Erna Meyer. When closed,

the unit appeared to be an ordinary wardrobe,

but when opened, it revealed a working kitchen.

In his 1963 Minikitchen, Colombo reconceived

the Hoosier Kitchen Cabinet typology of the late

nineteenth century as a prefabricated package that

was even more compact, mobile, and utilitar-

ian. Melanie Olle and Ilja Oelschlägel’s twenty-

first-century kitchen, Oma’s Rache (“Grandma’s

Revenge” in German), is a contemporary variation

of the unit kitchen, which provides opportunities

for cooking, dishwashing, dining, refrigeration,

food preparation, and storage (see pages 50–53).

Predating and informing the unit kitchens

were the office secretaries of the late nineteenth

century, such as the Wooton Patent Cabinet

Office Secretary, which contained an entire office

environment for the individual user.39 [Fig. 29] In

Wright’s 1906 Larkin Building clerical worksta-

tion, the chair is cantilevered off the desk, forming

an integrated work environment delivered in

a ready-to-use form.40 The 1951 design for the

Knoll Planning Unit’s own workspace premiered

multifunctional furniture pieces that included a

tilting drafting surface, a built-in divider panel,

and storage.

Notable contemporary unit workspaces

include prefabricated movable worker pods such

as Planet 3 Studio’s 2009 Out-of-Box Workstation,

which can be transformed from a portable

luggage-shaped container into a home office, and

the 2009 OfficePOD by the eponymous company

that can be placed in a variety of environments

(see pages 112–15). A less traditional workplace,

commissioned in 1994 by the architecture pro-

gram at Parsons The New School for Design, Allan

Wexler’s Parsons Kitchen revisits the relationship

between the unit kitchens and the office secretar-

ies. The cratelike element can be stored in a wall

crevice in the department’s reception area (whose

Introduction

22

form inspired its design) and unfolds to become

an in-house bar as well as a meeting place for

public events and receptions (see pages 46–49).41

The idea of the prefabricated unit as an

interior element took hold not only in the design

of kitchens and workplaces but also of bath-

rooms. Early plumbed interior bathrooms of the

nineteenth century were materially similar to

traditional domestic spaces and included wood

furniture, rugs, and curtains. At the turn of the

twentieth century, hygiene theories caused a shift

in bathroom design to an industrial aesthetic with

nonporous equipment, priming bathrooms for the

precision of prefabricated technologies.42

Many architects and designers have

explored the design of prefabricated bathrooms,

including Le Corbusier and Perriand, but Fuller

is frequently credited with the design of the first

prefabricated bathroom. His Dymaxion Bathroom

unit of 1930 included a tub/shower module and

a lavatory/toilet module, all contained within

five square feet of floor space and weighing only

about as much as a conventional bathtub.43 [Fig.

30] The kinetic nature of Fuller’s bathroom pod,

often referred to as plug-in or pod-in architecture,

inspired a cross-cultural architectural move-

ment, with projects in Europe, Asia, and North

America, including Peter Cook and Archigram’s

1964 Plug-in City study, Moshe Safdie’s Habitat

Apartments (Montreal, 1967), Kisho Kurokawa’s

Nakagin Capsule Tower (Tokyo, 1972), and Zvi

Hecker’s Ramot Housing (Jerusalem, 1975).44

Early prefabricated bathrooms were typi-

cally units designed for the assembly of a bath-

room in its entirety, incorporating the room’s

enclosure. In 1947 the magazine Architectural

Forum introduced a unique new concept, the

Standard Prefabricated Bathroom, an integrated

unit designed by Bertrand Goldberg that fit

through a conventional door and incorporated

all bathroom functionality in a fully prefabricated

interiorized appliance. The unit was designed to

transform any room into a bathroom and included

all fixtures, a toilet, bathtub, shower, and lavatory;

it also incorporated storage and lighting.45

In his seminal 1966 investigation of the

bathroom, Alexander Kira proposed his own pre-

fabricated designs. What separated Kira’s concept

from those of his peers was his rigorous study of

anthropometry. His prefabricated proposal, the

“Experimental relaxing/washing facility,” provided

for the incorporation of “controls, support devices,

storage shelves, ventilation, lighting, etc.” To

ensure that all fixtures were properly located for

the best functionality, he held that the elements

should be fabricated in a controlled environment,

hence making prefabrication a pragmatic choice

to insure quality control.46 A notable contem-

porary example, the 2008 Vertebrae Vertical

Bathroom by Design Odyssey, is, in contrast to

Kira’s bathroom, designed for efficiency rather

than ergonomics. Seven stacked elements rotate

around a central cylinder and include a sink, toi-

let, container for storing water, two cabinets, and

two showers at different heights.

The ability of the unit to fabricate a com-

plete interior environment has its earliest roots

in furniture and is well represented by the boxed

bed typology, in particular the lit clos (French for

“closed bed,” a seventeenth-century cabinetlike

structure). When closed, the lit clos fully encap-

sulates the bed, forming a room within a room.47

Colombo explored the inclusiveness of the unit

with his 1969 Living Machines, which included

the Cabriolet Bed and the Roto-Living machine.

The Cabriolet Bed, inspired by both the lit clos

and convertible automobiles, became an enclosed

room within a room when its soft top was elec-

tronically closed. The Roto-Living unit was a

kitchen and dining element with a central rotating

table. Colombo’s investigation into prefabricated

units culminated in the form of an entire house

Introduction

23

[Fig. 29] Wooton’s Patent Cabinet Office Secretary, advertisement, The Popular Science Monthly 6, no. 4, 1875

[Fig. 30] Dymaxion Bathroom, lower quadrants, R. Buckminster Fuller, 1937

with his Total Furniture Unit, exhibited in the

1972 show Italy: The New Domestic Landscape

at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The

Total Furniture Unit housed everything necessary

for the home in a single unit. [Fig. 31] [Fig. 32] In the

same exhibition, Ettore Sottsass, Jr., introduced

his visionary mobile multifunctional fiberglass

furniture. In these designs individual furniture

elements, including a kitchen and bathroom, are

reduced to equipped containers, which can either

be linked together or stand alone. The elements

can continually be reconfigured to make up the

most appropriate interior environment.48

The interior envelope is turned inside out

in Wexler’s 1991 Crate House investigation. This

conceptual study externalizes the interior into

four programmed crates—living room, bedroom,

kitchen, and bathroom—which, when not in

use, fit into an 8-foot interior cube. The crates

are individually rolled into and out of the cube

Introduction

24

[Fig. 31] Total Furniture Unit, Joe Colombo, 1972

[Fig. 32] Total Furniture Unit, kitchen detail, 1972

[Fig. 33] Crate House, Allan Wexler, 1991

[Fig. 34] Crate House, office detail, 1991

[Fig. 35] Lit Clos, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, 2000

Introduction