Refabricating Architecture: How Manufacturing Methodologies are Poised to Transform Building Construction

by Stephen Kieran, James Timberlake

Publisher's Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product.




Preoccupation with image and a failure to look at process has led entire generations of architects to overlook transfer technologies and transfer processes. Kieran and Timberlake argue that the time has come to re-evaluate and update the basic design and construction methods that have constrained the building industry throughout its history. They skillfully demonstrate that contemporary architectural construction is a linear process, in both design and construction, where segregation of intelligence and information is the norm. They convince the reader to look at the automobile, shipbuilding, and aerospace industries to learn how to incorporate collective intelligence and nonhierarchical production structures. Those industries have proven to be progressively economic, efficient, and they yield a higher quality product while the production of buildings stagnates in the methods and practices of the nineteenth century. The transfer they envision is the complete integration of design with the craft of assembly supported by the materials scientist, the product engineer, and the process engineer, all using the tools of present information science as the central enabler. The new architecture will not be about style, but rather about substance -- about the very methods and processes that underlie making.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Design

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2003

Reviews

[Attila Bertók · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this because I saw it mentioned on a youtube channel discussing architecture in general, and specifically, the future of architecture. The concept of prefabrication for buildings seemed intriguing to take a look into a scan of the book, and after a cursory glance, I was surprised to see how much modular construction reminds me of modular software application architecture. Seeing that the book is only about ~200 pages long, I decided to buy it, and give it a read, as a vaguely phrased software architecture book. Up to the last chapter, the parallels worked just perfectly. The book is insightful, visual, and to the point, even for a layman such as myself. From a software engineering point of view, it is still a rather interesting read.

[Darius Daruvalla-riccio · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a little slow and only interesting if you work in construction.

But it is a genuinely important subject matter. Before reading this book, I pictured offsite construction as a static Ford-esque mass production process. I pictured identical houses that were square and only came in grey.
However, after reading the book I understand the implications for quality and customizability that it gives. I understand the real advantages that are available and why it didn't take off in the past but may do so in the future.

[Katri · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. This could also be titled Rethinking Architecture. It certainly makes you think about architecture in a completely different way. And makes you wonder why the building industry is so far behind other forms of manufacturing.

[DougInNC · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the articulation of this vision for architecture, the historical underpinnings, and the projection of a different future. The authors labor over the building trade from architecture to maintenance, also addressing costs and materials. Their big-picture pondering concludes that one day we may not have to sweat the small stuff: "Through a virtual process [pre-simulated, modeled, and information-driven] the punch-list, the bane of every architect, contractor, and supplier, [can be] eliminated" (chapter 7, page 171 in this 2004 edition). They could, of course, add "customer" to the parties who abhor the punch-list.

I first found it humorous, even counter-intuitive that a widespread examination of an industry's operations would finish its penultimate paragraph measuring success by the elimination of perhaps its smallest afterthought (literally, the punch-list comes at the end). I should not be surprised, though, since from the time of the master builder "hundreds of years ago" (p.xi) we have known idiomatically that "for want of a nail the war was lost." Certainly this profession of architecture knows more than most how much the smallest details matter.

One client reference makes my short list of attention-getting passages that compelled me ever deeper through these pages for nuggets of insight:

- "The making of architecture is an act of organized chaos. This will not be a happy revelation to the buying public. If the real nature of the process were ever conveyed to the client, the architect's reward for honesty would be a lack of work. Instead, the architect places before the client a diagram of organizational structure that is a powerful marketing device to suggest that everything is under control." (chapter 3, p.53)

- "Needed here to sustain the dream of an accessible architecture is ... a new vision of process, not product. ... One lesson that engineers understand and teach, but architects neglect, is that process sets the stage for outcome." (chapter 5, p.107)

My major criticism is that the authors do not explain the information technology development that is going to make their vision possible beyond finding that (1) "The information management tools we need in order to manage our chaos have already been developed in other industries," (chapter 3, p.59) and (2) "intranets and extranets ..." can manage the process (chapter 5, p.117).

Perhaps I don't fully appreciate how cleanly the auto and airline industries' processes would transfer to the building industry. Maybe my view from being part of the software industry as it evolved over the last forty years makes me believe unreliability is all that can be relied upon. Software has consistently and repetitively shown itself problematic, and one wonders if airlines and autos have truly overcome the historical limitations of coding imperfection.

Leaving no doubt that I/T underpins their vision, chapter 3 declares, "... a fully integrated web of information tools to conceive a building and manage its design is the regulating and enabling structure, the new Modulor of this new way of making." (p.51)

The authors' vision does sound like information systems, with subroutines and interfaces:
"... large-scale problems can be most effectively solved by being taken apart aņd solved as smaller problems, each of which demands distinct responsibilities and authorities. The results are then patched together, and considerable attention is given to the seams conjoining the several solutions." (chapter 3, p.55)

Yet I believe that advances in I/T have effectively discarded simple subroutines, interfaces, and their successor, object oriented design. Distributed network computing has emerged as the leap ahead for I/T, whether that be simply the "cloud" or the intricate complexity of artificial intelligence (AI).

I like the journey these authors allowed me to explore with them. I appreciate the look beyond their own space to find a different model. I enjoyed many fascinating insights. I just found them lacking a convincing explanation of the I/T architecture on which they categorically pin their hopes for intensely changing all manner of work that "does not thrive on rapid change." (p.105)

The book is over a decade old, but the concepts remain true and insightful. Enjoy it.

[Vik Venkatraman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book, but more of a manifesto to architects stuck in the past than an actual elucidation of current methods and possibilities. A good quick read though, and with plenty of visually compelling arguments.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the result of Stephen Kieran & James Timberlake's Latrobe Fellowship funded comparative study between the processes utilized by the aerospace, automobile, and shipbuilding industries and those of the building industry (beginning in 2001). They piece together an interesting proposal; mainly that there are many aspects of the processes that each of these other industries utilize that could benefit the AEC industry. They go through the history of failed attempts at prefabricated housing since the turn of the century, and the major philosophical and legal milestones that got us to our current position. They then imagine how the building industry might absorb some of these practices, and how the roles between each of it's current participants might change. Overall this book does a very good job of basically explaining an idea could work, and if so would have massive implications across the largest industry in the world, but it really only purports a possibility, nothing more. An excellent and very quick read. Anyone interested in the revolutionary technology that is reshaping the AEC industry should take in these words.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting parti by innovative and ingenious architects from philly. the 'argument' is protracted and seems deliberately intended to appear polemical along the lines of corb's 'vers une architecture' - a superfluous, distracting and unnecessary orientation. i wish architects did not feel the need to express themselves in such complex and mannerisitic fashion in order to make clear their views and concepts. kieran timberlake;s argument is ultimately an argument that advances the notion that architecture is lnevitably subject to the benefits and vagaries of pre fabrication and the discipline of process engineering is one which should and could inform architectural production more closely. a bit repetitive and the illustrations are unnecessarily and pretentiously retro. should have got otl aicher to have done them but unfortunately he snuffed it years ago.
good guys good ideas good architecture but undermined by an apparent need to shroud their argument in an unnecessary rhetoric.....

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up quite awhile ago, maybe two years ago, and placed it onto my stack of 'to read' books. I purchased the book in a bookstore in Seattle during one of my visits. It was featured in a display and the subtitle 'how manufacturing methodologies are poised to transform building construction', caught my attention and I couldn't seem to put it down. I recently selected the book from the stack simply because I have re-developed my interest in modular construction and its potential for housing. However, I was surprised by the breadth of the content in the book and really appreciated the discussion of design process and how to apply it to corresponding manufacturing methodologies.

[Timmytoothless · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging proposal of integrating building modules constructed off site into the architectural process. The authors' real world forays into 'off-site mass customization' at the end of book rescue the thesis from impracticality

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting

[Skinnypeterm · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent look at the multi-faceted process that is Architecture.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps the most fascinating book on architecture, certainly on construction process, I've ever read.

[Jay Brand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ideas to reduce costs and increase quality throughout the architecture & construction industries.

[Pei · Rating 2 out of 5]

the book is best communicated by the last chapter