Contextual A-"Where" - Ness of Prefabrication. Navigating architectural assembly through a prefabricated lighthouse

Abstract

The advent of industrialisation - and thus, industrialised production - has enabled unprecedented capabilities of mass production and mass distribution of commoditised artefacts, igniting and continuously driving the culture of mass consumption and consumerism which we are accustomed to today. Seminal within this development is the propagation of the assembly line by Henry Ford, exemplified through the mass production of his automobile - the Model T. His manufacturing methodologies are quickly absorbed by prominent Modernist architects, such as Le Corbusier to produce quality housing for the masses. These schemes however, though unifying in its act through identical reproduction, received significant backlash for compromising individuality. Nowadays, the concept of mass customisation replaces the twentieth century ideals of mass production, enabled through technological advancements in the manufacturing process as well as new modes of organisation.1 Contemporary digital technologies seminal in propagating and further advancing this notion are increasingly being used in the building industry, improving not only the efficiency of the manufacture, but also the workflow through effective information exchange and communications. Customers/ clients are thus no longer restricted to identical products and the generation of variance in the end products is easily achieved without sacrificing the former benefits of speed, precision, quality and economy. Architecturally, this greatly enhaced the ability for prefabrication to adopt to a variety of contexts and circumstances, and most importantly, securing individuality in design to an extent. Critical Question: How does contemporary prefabrication methodologies - using digital methods - implement the notion of the changing context? Given that speed and economy are significant factors in prefabrication system, how is this maintained and reflected within the design?