Author: Ryan E. Smith
File Type: pdf
Architects have been intrigued by prefabricated construction since the earlytwentieth century. Recent advances in design, engineering and manufacturing processes have led to a significant expansion in the use of pre-assembled components, which are fitted to finished structures on site. Collectively, such processes are becoming known as offsite construction. A ground-breaking text, Offsite Architecture establishes the current and future state of thinking in this field. A range of the most highly regarded thinkers and practitioners from around the globe share their ideas and practical findings on offsite prefabrication, examining theory and practice, opportunities and challenges, successes and failures. A timely response to the growing interest in this method, the book provides the fundamental basis for a critical, reflective approach to offsite architecture. Contributions from both academics and professionals make Offsite Architecture required reading forpractitioners as well as students taking courses in architecture, prefabrication, construction and engineering. **Review Quale and Smith have brokered for us a glimpse into the proverbial fray of practicing prefabrication. Theyve assembled a multi-national group of current thinkers, designers, and researchers who offer individual testaments on its constitution. The result is a productive frisson between theory, history, and case studies, each tailored to regimes of philosophy, policy, and place. It is no surprise that this grouping neatly manages to dodge a singular definition, offering instead many approaches to this kind of construction. Offsite Architecturewill satisfy the architect who intuits that prefabrication is not entirely known, nor is its future entirely certain, but that to employ it one must overcome the hype. - Billie Faircloth, Partner, KieranTimberlake About the Author Ryan E. Smith is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Utah, USA. Hehas investigatedoffsite design and construction for nearly a decade through industry-applied research. He is author of Prefab Architecture (Wiley, 2010) and Building Systems (Routledge, 2012). He is past Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Institute of Building Sciences Off-Site Construction Council. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Offsite Construction atEdinburgh Napier University in the UK. John D. Quale is Director and Professor of Architecture at the University of New Mexico School of Architectureand Planning, USA. His expertise is in sustainable design, affordable housing, prefabrication, the environmental impact of construction, and collaborative and integrated design processes. He is the author of Sustainable, Affordable, Prefab The ecoMOD Project (UVA Press, 2012) and Trojan Goat A Self-Sufficient House (UVA Press, 2002), about his leadership of the 2002 UVA Solar Decathlon Team ina national designbuild house competition sponsored by the US Department of Energy.