7.28.USA-7-detail-b system built Highlights Relevant to Sustainable Design:
We can rethink modular construction as “system built.”
We make kitchen cabinets in a controlled workshop or factory environment, so why not make components of homes and buildings versus “stick-built” construction on the job site? This sketch includes a mass-produced prefab unit structure going up in Philadelphia. The process is akin to a modern barn rising in some sense in that the majority of time is spent in preparation before the actual day of construction. In either case, if all goes well, the pieces fit together as planned.
The large, open fireplace is a familiar symbol of Americana that is comforting to us all. Chimneys stick out of pitched roofs. The idea of an architect attempting to design a “complete” house is odd in relation to the history of individual house expansions. Most residences prior to the twentieth century included at least some additions, alterations, and modifications as children came into the world or spouses joined the family. Houses can tell a story about a particular family. A tradition in Vermont dictates planting a pair of poplar trees along the entrance drive for each new birth. Proud grandparents may sit on their porch looking down a long line of sequentially shorter trees. Now, in American culture, we live in a few homes over our lives, leaving less time to set any roots.
Author and illustrator: Charlie Szoradi is an architect, inventor, and the CEO of Independence LED Lighting. He writes about many other topics related to system built houses through his extensive travels around the world.
If you have found this posting online, it is an excerpt from Mr. Szoradi’s book Learn from Looking that served as the inspiring seed content for this drawing share resource. For additional drawings and insights on system built and modular design, we hope that you enjoy exploring LearnfromLooking.com. You can search via general terms such as sustainability as well as narrower terms such as system built and stick-built.
