Keeping current with MoMA

So you can stay current with every aspect of the installations leading up to the official opening of the show on July 20th, here is the link to the Museum of Modern Art's Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling exhibition.

In case you don't know about it, the exhibition “features five full-scale contemporary prefabricated houses, to be constructed in the outdoor space to the west of the main Museum building, continuing MoMA's rich history of presenting full-scale architectural projects. Five individuals and architecture firms have been given the unprecedented opportunity to deploy both commercially viable domestic creations and entirely new, speculative prototypes. The delivery and assembly of these projects functions as a real-time urban event, visible to the general public from the city streets beginning May 22, when the first house arrives for assembly. This Web site is dedicated to the documentation of the design, fabrication, and assembly process of these specially commissioned projects.”

So, at the site linked to above, you can read all about the pre-assembly stuff – design, fabrication, delivery, etc. – for each of the 5 houses, and every Saturday there is a post by the curatorial team telling about behind the scenes aspects of organizing and bringing the show to life from their perspective. – GF
Illustration from KieranTimberlake Associates

How's this for a small footprint?

Front Architects says on its website (after you switch from their Polish to English), that these pre-fab dwellings are Inspired by a city billboard, it is designed as an object suitable for almost every place on earth. It is especially predisposed for sites of an interesting landscaping. For instance forests, seas, lakes, mountains, meadows - but, on the other hand, just next to the main city street. Very, very cool. (via inhabitat) – GF

Pre-Fab houses: a MoMA exhibition you can really get into

I was wondering aloud the other day why modern-style pre-fab houses don't seem to be as popular a choice for people embarking on new residential construction as I would expect. The concept of Pre-Fab is sound – components of the house are manufactured at one location (in a factory, assembly-line style) which cuts down dramatically the amount of costly on-site construction. Because the components arrive at the site pretty much ready for assembly into a structure, there is supposedly less wasted material – stuff isn't being trucked into the site, most of it used, and whatever isn't used is tossed. They are designed to be energy-efficient, and seem to be perfectly suited to accepting solar panels - some even come with that as one of the many options for customizing. Also, they're perfect for those who can't bear to wait a year or so for traditional construction. After the sitework is done, you can watch your new home go up in something like 3 days! Another compelling reason to consider pre-fab: most of them are just plain cute!

Maybe people unaware that pre-fabricated houses are an option to be considered, or perhaps when they hear "pre-fab" still think "trailer park"? Maybe they assume they are allowed no choices to personalize their home?

Whatever it could be, there will be lots to be learned when The Museum of Modern Art begins assembling 5 pre-fab dwellings in a vacant lot next to it, on West 53rd Street, NYC. The show, called "Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling", opens on July 20, but house parts begin to arrive late May, early June. The delivering and assembling of the houses are important parts of the exhibition and will be completely viewable to passers-by. This article in today's New York Times says that, beginning mid-March, the architects of each house will record progress the fabrication through completion on a blog at MoMA's website. The houses will be accessible to visitors when the exhibition opens in July.

Although I'm disappointed that neither of these prominent pre-fab architects - Rocio Romero and Michelle Kaufmann - made it into the chosen 5 (from a starting pool of 400 architects!). They are favorites of mine and I hope they are well represented in the exhibition inside the museum. – GF