- Paperback: 248 pages
- Publisher: Reaktion Books; illustrated edition edition (19 May 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1861892438
- ISBN-13: 978-1861892430
- Product Dimensions: 21.5 x 14.1 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
204,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #86 in Books > Art, Architecture & Photography > Architecture > Techniques & Tools > Materials
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Product Description
Review
'easy-to-read and provocative . . . valuable to a wide and diverse audience of general readers, design students, practitioners, and academics . . . Davies achieves such broad appeal by cleverly packaging two narratives into one book. His polemic on modern architecture is embedded inside of a competent short history of western architects' experimentations with prefabricated single family homes.' --Design Issues
'The Prefabricated Home is a rare thing indeed - an academic but accessible architectural history that's crystal clear about where architects should be paying more attention if they are to continue to be central to building design and offsite methods. . . a revealing, jargon-free and instructive book' --Offsite Construction magazine
'The Prefabricated Home is a rare thing indeed - an academic but accessible architectural history that's crystal clear about where architects should be paying more attention if they are to continue to be central to building design and offsite methods. . . a revealing, jargon-free and instructive book' --Offsite Construction magazine
Product Description
Prefabrication cannot be ignored, for it challenges the most traditional values of architecture. Architects may have neglected this area of practical construction, but they have much to learn from pattern-book houses, modular structures, Portakabins and mobile homes. "The Prefabricated Home" examines how the relationship between architecture and industrialized building has now become an urgent issue for architects. Colin Davies traces the history of prefabricated buildings from small-scale 'prefabs' to the precast concrete mass housing of the 1960s to the present-day revival of interest in 'volumetric' modular buildings, and assesses their architectural implications. He looks at what is happening today in factories and on building sites worldwide, and contrasts the aesthetic concerns of architects with the economic ones of industrialized building manufacturers. He argues that the involvement of architects in industrialized building can produce an exciting new type of architecture that is humane, liberating and environmentally friendly. "The Prefabricated Home" is a revealing and instructive book that will appeal to anyone interested in architecture and concerned with the future of housing.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The prefabricated house is an important theme, perhaps the most important, in the conventional, canonical history of twentieth-century architecture. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The prefabricated house is an important theme, perhaps the most important, in the conventional, canonical history of twentieth-century architecture. Read the first page
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Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
I really enjoyed this book. It is extremely well-written, entertaining, based on very strong scholarship. I particularly appreciated the discourse about how the role of the architect has evolved, and how architects appear to have absented themselves from an active role in the production of buildings. The gap between what architects do and what constructors do is very apparent in this book. I strongly recommend this to anyone interested in architecture as a practice or as a discipline. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the industrialization of construction.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Research and Style make for excellent reading
14 May 2008
Format:Paperback
As an architect interested in the idea of prefabrication I approached this book with the hope of learning as well as being instructed and entertained.
The author succeeded on all counts.
This book is extremely readable without losing any weight in content.
I recommend it to anyone looking for both a historical and a social history of prefabricated building techniques.
My only criticism is that the book skimmed over the huge prefab industry in Asia and Japan in particular to focus on Europe and North America. A small gripe concerning an excellent and rewarding read.
The author succeeded on all counts.
This book is extremely readable without losing any weight in content.
I recommend it to anyone looking for both a historical and a social history of prefabricated building techniques.
My only criticism is that the book skimmed over the huge prefab industry in Asia and Japan in particular to focus on Europe and North America. A small gripe concerning an excellent and rewarding read.
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