MODULAR ARCHITECTURE
In addition to using the traditional building systems, ABELCIR has also adopted modular architecture, which aims to achieve a flexible structural system that can be combined into multiple options, based on a series of pieces with equal or proportional dimensions, with an industrialised construction process that greatly reduces execution costs and implements much more exhaustive quality controls that ensure efficiency through factory production, and that can incorporate increasingly sophisticated technology to promote energy self-sufficiency and reduce execution time to under 50%.
A more industrialised and modular construction system also enables more efficient waste management, the reintroduction of recycled materials and a more integrated construction process.
Reviewing the recent history of modular architecture, we find historical antecedents in designs such as Pierre Charreau’s Glass House, Jean Prouvé’s Aluminium House, Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, the Eames House, Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Buckminster Fuller’s Dimaxion, E. Haslin’s Yankee Barn Homes or Marcel Breuer’s Case Studies.
All of these have entered the history of architecture thanks to their innovative nature, but in the 21st century we are still facing the challenge of establishing a true construction industry that will make the leap from building to manufacturing, adding great efficiency at all levels.
Manufacturing means repeating processes and learning from them, making trials and comparisons, recording the improvements made and reintroducing them into the value chain of an architectural project. This means recognising the importance of R&D&I, and doing it requires a key industrial concept: modularity.
