Prefab [Anglais] [Relié]

"Pretty Fabulous: Prefab...provides a much needed look at new ideas in prefabricated housing."

Prefab presents a series of innovative homes and concepts that boldly demonstrate that this is not your grandmother's prefab, offers a glimpse into the history of prefabricated housing over the last century, and reveals a wealth of practical and attractive alternatives to the status quo. Prefab discusses architects, builders, and designers such as Walter Gropius and Philippe Starck, examines the historical precedents from Albert Frey's Corbusier-inspired Aluminaire house to Kisho Kurokawa's capsules, and showcases the work of twenty-four contemporary architects and designers who are exploring the myriad possibilities that prefabrication offers for housing of the future. From the fantastical digitized aluminum prototypes of Gregg Lynn to the stylish functionality of Ikea's prefabricated apartments in Sweden, Prefab presents a series of innovative homes and space-saving concepts that show how far this building technique has come-and how far it can go.

Allison Arieff is a writer, senior editor of the architecture magazine dwell, and co-author of Trailer Travel. She is also the editor of several books on art and culture, including Airstream: A History of the Land Yacht and Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop. She lives in San Francisco.

Bryan Burkhart is the designer and co-author of Airstream: The History of the Land Yacht and Trailer Travel: A Visual History of Mobile America. As creative director of his own firm, Modernhouse, he has designed books for Taschen, Chronicle Books, and Gibbs Smith, Publisher. Burkhart also lives in San Francisco.

Allison Arieff is a writer, senior editor of the architecture magazine Dwell, and coauthor of Trailer Travel: A Visual History of Mobile America. She is also the editor of several books on art and culture, including Airstream: A History of the Land Yacht and Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop.

Bryan Burkhart is the designer and co-author of Airstream: The History of the Land Yacht and Trailer Travel: A Visual History of Mobile America. As creative director of his own firm, Modernhouse, he has designed books for Taschen, Chronicle Books, and Gibbs Smith, Publisher.

Prefabricated building systems can be traced as far back as the seventeenth century when a panelized wood house was shipped from England to Cape Ann in 1624 to provide housing for a fishing fleet. Swedes introduced a notched building-corner technique for the consturction of log cabins just a little over a decade later. By the nineteenth century, portable structures had grown in number as new settlements and colonies were formed, and with them, a demand for immediate housing solutions. The kit houses shipped by rail during the California gold rush in 1849 are one example. Iron buildings shipped to British colonies later in the century are another. By the early part of the twentieth centruy, architects and inventors J. A. Brodie developed wood-framed duplex units in 1904. Four years later, Thomas Edison developed a poured-concrete house meant to provode workers with housing that was not only safe and affordable but also, as described by Scientific American, "artisitic, comfortable, sanitary and not monotonously uniform." Despite Edison's best intentions, it was never built because it was simply too heavy.