Lustron houses are prefabricated enameled steel houses developed in the post-World War II era United States in response to the shortage of homes for returning GIs by Chicago industrialist and inventor Carl Strandlund. Considered low-maintenance and extremely durable, they were expected to attract modern families who might not have the time or interest in repairing and painting conventional wood and plaster houses.
Modular buildings and modular homes are prefabricated buildings or houses that consist of repeated sections called modules. "Modular" is a construction method that involves constructing sections away from the building site, then delivering them to the intended site. Installation of the prefabricated sections is completed on site. Prefabricated sections are sometimes placed using a crane. The modules can be placed side-by-side, end-to-end, or stacked, allowing a variety of configurations and styles. After placement the modules are joined together using inter-module connections, also known as inter-connections. The inter-connections tie the individual modules together to form the overall building structure.
A structural insulated panel, or structural insulating panel, (SIP), is a form of sandwich panel used in the construction industry.
Tilt-up,tilt-slab or tilt-wall is a type of building and a construction technique using concrete. Though it is a cost-effective technique with a shorter completion time, poor performance in earthquakes has mandated significant seismic retrofit requirements in older buildings.
Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term is used to distinguish this process from the more conventional construction practice of transporting the basic materials to the construction site where all assembly is carried out.
Prefabricated homes, often referred to as prefab homes or simply prefabs, are specialist dwelling types of prefabricated building, which are manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled. Some current prefab home designs include architectural details inspired by postmodernism or futurist architecture.
Framing, in construction, is the fitting together of pieces to give a structure support and shape. Framing materials are usually wood, engineered wood, or structural steel. The alternative to framed construction is generally called mass wall construction, where horizontal layers of stacked materials such as log building, masonry, rammed earth, adobe, etc. are used without framing.
A tie, strap, tie rod, eyebar, guy-wire, suspension cables, or wire ropes, are examples of linear structural components designed to resist tension. It is the opposite of a strut or column, which is designed to resist compression. Ties may be made of any tension resisting material.
A prefabricated building, informally a prefab, is a building that is manufactured and constructed using prefabrication. It consists of factory-made components or units that are transported and assembled on-site to form the complete building.
Universal Forest Products, Inc. is an American company that manufactures and distributes wood and wood-alternative products, pressure-treated wood, engineered roof systems for site-built construction and manufactured housing, and a solid-sawn lumber buyer. It has brands in a range of products aimed at the construction and home improvement industries and has approximately 100 facilities in North America and Australia.
Girder and Panel Building Sets were a series of plastic toy construction kits created by Kenner Toys in the mid-1950s.
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a wood panel product made from gluing layers of solid-sawn lumber together. Each layer of boards is oriented perpendicular to adjacent layers and glued on the wide faces of each board, usually in a symmetric way so that the outer layers have the same orientation. An odd number of layers is most common, but there are configurations with even numbers as well. Regular timber is an anisotropic material, meaning that the physical properties change depending on the direction at which the force is applied. By gluing layers of wood at perpendicular angles, the panel is able to achieve better structural rigidity in both directions. It is similar to plywood but with distinctively thicker laminations.
A hanging garden is a sustainable landscape architecture, an artistic garden or a small urban farm: attached to or built on a wall. They are mainly found in areas where land is scarce or where the farmer is mobile or not permanent.
The Winslow Ames House is a prefabricated modular International Style house in New London, Connecticut, United States. It was designed by Robert W. McLaughlin, Jr. and was built in 1933. Winslow Ames, a professor of art history at Connecticut College and the art director of the Lyman Allyn Museum, had the home built after attending the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. Constructed for $7,500, the prefabricated house is one of two surviving Motohomes produced by McLaughlin's company American Houses Inc. The modular house, comprising three rectangles and a flat roof, was constructed on a concrete slab with a welded steel framework. It was made with asbestos panels and features a core component that provides the heating and plumbing functions for the house. The other two modules feature two bedrooms and a one-car garage.
Carl Koch was a noted American architect. He was most associated with the design of prefabricated homes and development of the Techcrete building system.
Prefabs were a major part of the delivery plan to address the United Kingdom's post–Second World War housing shortage. They were envisaged by war-time prime minister Winston Churchill in March 1944, and legally outlined in the Housing Act 1944.
ICHIJO Homes, an affiliate company of CO.,LTD. in Japan, is a home builder based in Sydney, Australia. They build modular energy efficient homes, where their prefabricated wall panels come from off-shore factory in a container, and uses a crane to place the panels onto the foundation, reducing the construction time and increasing the accuracy of the home for less air leakage.
The Trussed Concrete Steel Company was a company founded by Julius Kahn, an engineer and inventor. The company manufactured prefabricated products for reinforced concrete beams and steel forms for building reinforced concrete floors and walls. Kahn invented and patented a unique new technology reinforcement system of construction called the Kahn System that was stronger, more economical, and lighter than the existing old school technology used up to that point to construct buildings. The old method was to use plain straight smooth steel beams or loose rods or stirrups in concrete beams and floors. Kahn's new technology improved system used 45 degree tab flanges or "wings" permanently attached on steel beams that distributed the tension stress for overall improvement in strength of reinforced concrete.
Hy-Rib was a brand name for a product manufactured by the Trussed Concrete Steel Company. It is an engineering reinforcement system for floors, walls, and ceilings of buildings and houses. This product is a derivative of the Kahn Trussed Bar for beams and columns that was invented by Julius Kahn. Kahn engineered the Hy-Rib products and they were first manufactured in 1909.
Rocio García Romero is a Chilean-American architect who has designed prefabricated homes in a modern aesthetic, utilizing kit housing to control both cost and offer flexibility for local ordinances. Her rebirth of the kit house was praised by Karrie Jacobs, founding editor in chief of Dwell magazine.
