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Modules + Hybrids in Beginning Design
Steven Kieran and James Timberlake assert that the design and
fabrication technique of themodule is poised to usher in a more
qualitative and sustainable architectural future. The module,which
can be found in many contexts including nature and has been
appropriated by the designprofessions, is a ripe specimen for
changing the ways in which architects design and makearchitecture.
As supported in their book Refabricating Architecture1, the module
is a strategyemployed throughout the shipbuilding, aircraft and
automobile industries. This use of a modulehas, for those
industries, allowed for a better coordinated and better fabricated
product withoutsacrificing design integrity. The use of a module
has produced results including more efficientuse of labor and
compressed time frames through simultaneous fabrication.
Additionally,because of the ability to create a more focused and
specialized subassembly process, qualitycontrol and coordination
are far better than was previously achieved through the assembly
line.
The module as a unit of measurement is currently found
throughout architecture in the form ofsheet goods and standard
building units (plywood, wood framing, masonry units, etc.).
Atpresent though, the use of a module it is limited primarily to
material manufacturers as a way topackage and deliver materials
rather than a technique in the hands of the architect. While
somearchitects are exploring this strategy, they are doing so on
the fringe of professional practiceand seen as an anomaly.
Additionally, Tom Wiscombe argues that the development of hybrid
systems is also poised tohave a significant impact in the future of
architectural design. Instead of a technique of collagewhere
systems such as structure, ventilation, and skin are loosely
integrated and find
themselves relating only through juxtaposed location, hybrids
find commonalities and overlapsincreasing the performance and
coordination within a system. Wiscombe addresses this relativeto
skin and structure stating the stable, dogmatic relation of frame
to skin in architecturedissolves into a complex dynamic in which
skins sometimes become structural and framessometimes delaminate
from skins. 2
In addition to positioning the module within the history of
architectural innovation through theworks of architects such as
Buckminster Fuller, Archigram, Kisho Kurokawa, and Iwomoto
Scott,this paper will champion the use of the modulated and hybrid
techniques in beginning design asa systemic approach to the design
of architectonic form and space. Through the use of studentprojects
incorporating these strategies, this paper will interrogate their
ability to create a thoughtprocess in the student that encourages
an awareness of the potential that the module andmateriality have
to increase the performative aspects of their designs. At the
beginning level, thismay be limited to a form that simultaneously
overlaps the needs of structure, surface, aperture,but later may
lead to the design of a hybrid system which synergizes systems of
structure, skin,
ventilation, and lighting.
