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Prefabrication As the Comprehensive Studio

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Prefabrication As the Comprehensive Studio 106 WITHOUT A HITCH: NEW DIRECTIONS IN PREFABRICATED ARCHITECTURE site-built and factory-manufactured building Prefabrication as the tolerances. Comprehensive Studio This paper will contrast the comprehensive studios typical in most architectural programs and with the comprehensive studio that I developed as a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). This paper will describe the comprehensive studio goals and outcomes, and will demonstrate how prefabrication as a studio problem enhanced Dana Gulling the student’s experience within the comprehensive studio. Projects that developed University of New Mexico as a result of this studio were well researched, considerate of building systems and utilized innovative materials and building assemblage practices as a demonstration of architectural Introduction expression. I believe that by providing an architectural problem—such as prefabrication— Most architectural programs utilize the that requires innovation, future architects will comprehensive studio as a method of be better positioned to shape architectural demonstrating that architectural students can research in the 21st century. synthesize their support and studio courses into a fully resolved architectural design The Comprehensive Studio project. Traditionally however, the focus of the comprehensive studio is not design innovation; To begin, we need to investigate the instead the studio is a checklist, verifying comprehensive studio as a studio typology. students can integrate a variety of criteria into The comprehensive studio, sometimes referred a final design. Unfortunately, this methodology to as the capstone studio, represents a gives architects little chance to explore new culmination of all that students have learned building materials and assemblages, or throughout their architectural education into a innovative solutions to the building systems. In single design solution. The intent of the order to position future architects to influence comprehensive studio is to coalesce the new technological architecture directions, we students’ design skills from studio with need to reconsider the comprehensive studio’s information learned through their support standard practices and problems. We need to courses (environmental controls, structures, introduce non-traditional studio problems that construction technology, acoustics, and encourage innovative design solutions. lighting). Final projects for this studio typically ask students to produce a building that To this end, I developed a comprehensive demonstrates an understanding of building studio that utilized prefabrication technologies structure, plumbing and electrical services, and building production as the given studio heating and venting systems, building problem. As opposed to the traditional assemblages, and sustainable practices. For comprehensive studio where the building most programs the comprehensive studio systems are overlaid onto the architecture occurs at the end of a student’s education. design, the prefabrication studio directly Support courses are either completed before integrated the design of the structure, the comprehensive studio (as is the case at systems, and assemblage with the SCAD and the University of Notre Dame) or are architecture. Because solving the system of taken in conjunction with the comprehensive assemblage, transportation, and site erection studio (as is the case at Catholic University of were part of the given problem, students were America, University of Maryland, and able to directly link the making of the object Philadelphia University).1 with the object’s design. In comparison to the standard comprehensive studio, benefits of and The National Architectural Accrediting Board skills learned through this studio included: (NAAB) does not describe specific exploring innovative materials and building requirements for the comprehensive studio2, assemblage processes; designing the building but individual accredited programs assign a core and connecting the core to site services; number of student performance criteria to be and addressing the design interface between PREFABRICATION STUDIO 107 addressed through this studio. The of a building’s reality. Finally, because the comprehensive studio is a design studio and so performance criteria for this studio are so some of the assigned criteria (e.g., Critical extensive, student workloads are necessarily Thinking Skills, Graphic Skills, Research, and focused on building resolution rather than Fundamental Design Skills) are similar to other building innovation. Therefore traditional design studios. Although the overall student services and systems are used in the design performance criteria for this studio vary from solutions instead of proposing new and program to program, there appears to be a innovative solutions. criteria group that is universal to the comprehensive studio. These criteria include: It is my assertion that design problems and Site Conditions, Structural Systems, Life Safety studio organization for the comprehensive Systems, Building Envelope Systems, Building studio need to be better configured. We need Service Systems, Building Systems to emphasize that the design of the building Integration, Building Material and Assemblies, systems can be as creative as the conceptual and Comprehensive Design3. Because of the design of the building itself. In addition, I sheer number of student performance criteria believe that the studio can continue to coalesce that are required by individual program’s all that the student has learned within a comprehensive studios (SCAD lists seventeen), singular studio, while at the same time offering this studio type is often required to address students a more creative design process. more criteria than any other studio within that Students can also utilize the comprehensive program. studio as a testing ground to develop new materials, building assemblages, and The comprehensive studio is often seen as a innovative services. In order to create an student’s closest experience to practice and environment in which the students could follows the standard building design procedure explore all of these elements, I believed that of many professional offices. Through this the studio problem needs to be small in size to studio, students progress through conceptual allow for exploration and invention, but design, schematic design, design development, complex enough to address the studio and then to documentation. In the beginning, typology. This is why I created the design students may study building form, but as the problem of a prefabricated house and required design quickly develops they investigate that the house be kept to less than 1500 building structure, building services, and the square feet. building assemblage. Eventually, the systems interface with the design, allowing the students Prefabrication Studio to resolve the building into a comprehensive solution. To address the perceived lack of design rigor associated with the comprehensive studio, the I believe that the traditional comprehensive studio was conceived so that design was studio has been problematic for many reasons. extended beyond a theoretical aesthetic First, the opportunity for resolution is difficult argument to include the beauty of the building because of the academic calendar’s limited systems. Emphasis was placed on the design of time frame. An office often utilizes a team of the core, building structure, and assemblage, architects and consultants for more time than and how those items enhanced, or directed, a standard sixteen-week semester, thus the building’s design. This emphasis was done offering many more person-hours than a through assigned theoretical readings, a student has available. The second problem created studio culture, and a new design with this studio is the perceived lack of design process. Students were asked to begin rigor. Because of the time necessary for the designing by investigating their building core design resolution, little time is spent on and work outwards towards the building shell. conceptual and schematic design. As a result, The beauty of the student’s designs were not design suffers and the “comprehensive” portion in the overall shape making of the project, but of the studio is seen as the necessary but became about the articulation of the building uncreative portion of the studio effort. Next, through the design of its structure, plumbing, because the comprehensive studio follows the HVAC, materials, and building assemblage. traditional professional design process, students see the systems portion of the design By asking the students to design a as being subservient or reactive to the design prefabricated house, students considered the process. The art of building design is seen as building systems in a manner that they had not separate and superior to the craft and beauty 108 WITHOUT A HITCH: NEW DIRECTIONS IN PREFABRICATED ARCHITECTURE been previously accustomed and this led to Because of the project’s intentional small size, greater understanding and innovation within the services within the house are a dominant their designs. We concentrated on the feature of the building design. The dominance questions of how the building would be of the building core reinforced the importance assembled and how it would operate. The of the building services in the students’ studio focus was on the issues of prefabrication designs. The core housed the areas of food but also included the production of the preparation and personal
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