Yale School of Architecture Takes a New Look at Pre-Fab Construction

Yale School of Architecture Takes a New Look at Pre-Fab Construction
"Some Assembly Required: Contemporary Prefabricated Houses," featuring the work of eight contemporary architecture studios, will be at the Yale School of Architecture from October 27, 2006, to February 2, 2007.

The show, which originated at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, demonstrates how far prefabricated homes of the digital age have come from the "straight off the assembly line" look of the mid-20th century.

From the black barn in the style of a Viking longhouse, by the Swedish firm Pinc House, to Steven Holl's shimmering metal-clad Turbulence House, each building bears the idiosyncratic stamp of its designers.

Yet all of these prototype homes, offering a range of options that can include building material, interior structure and overall dimension, can also reflect the taste and particular needs of their owners.

The firm Resolution: 4 Architecture, for example, makes three different types of prefabricated modules-communal living spaces, private spaces for bed- and bathrooms and accessory units for storage and outside additions-that can be configured in a variety of ways.

For their model house in this exhibition, the modules were customized as a mountainside vacation home, but the same prefabricated units might be arranged to serve a different function in another setting.