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Abstract: This paper focuses on housing flexibility and expandability in the generation of
housing design and variations, particularly in the work of Rudolph M. Schindler. His ideas
for modular planning and construction were developed during the depression of the 19301s,at
an appropriate time to help meet the needs for low-cost and adaptable shelter in the United
States. One of Schindler's un-built housing designs, the so-called Schindler Shelter, is
described as a prototype applicable to discussions today. Schindler's integrated design and
construction system is described for its role in the development of the Schindler Shelter. The
paper concludes with an interactive computer model, based upon the studies and analyses of
the Schindler Shelter, for flexible and expandable housing designs. The model may be unique
as a basis for offering a supplementary option in combination with existing network
capabilities, allowing homebuyers to change, modify, and manipulate the layout of preset
floor plans, in real-time on the Internet.
Keywords: housing flexibility, Schindler, panel-post construction, and user interface model
1. INTRODUCTION
The aim of both homebuilders and homebuyers has always been that of a balance between
mass-customization housing and individualized privately designed homes. To this end, architects
and homebuilders have sought to develop strategies and methodologies that allow minimal
prototypes to adapt to changing needs over time (Habraken 1976). There have been some fertile
periods in the United States when flexible and expandable housing designs were developed to
facilitate simple changes and additions to the original basic units. Such a time was depression-era
California.
One of the finest prototypes to come out of California, one of R.M. Schindler's un-built
housing units, is the so-called Schindler Shelter. This prototype is the subject of the discussion
below. The project is a prime example of flexibility and expandability, since it illustrates how a
variety of designs may be produced as an outcome of using a combined design and construction
system.
In 1933, Schindler advocated a housing system that involved into an integrated
construction system and systematic design strategies. For Schindler, compositional method and
construction systems are closely related: the compositional method is a vehicle to organize space
and space forms. The construction system is a technical support to realize the space form, "an
integral part of the conception of a building." Both functioned as indispensable components of his
'Space Architecture' throughout his lifelong practice. Schindler writes, "I have tried to experiment
always with new materials and techniques." The development of new construction methods was
essential for Schindler because conventional or standard construction systems were, at times, not
always suitable for the execution of the new concept of space architecture. Schindler was always
technically innovative, pushing methods of construction beyond conventional wisdom. These ideas
are clearly reflected in his housing design.
Schindler developed the Schindler Shelter project from 1933 to 1942 although it was never
built. The project was intended to provide urban dwellers with an opportunity to attain economic
security as well as comfortable suburban shelter within somewhat limited means. Schindler
presented a concept, which addressed flexibility of the floor plan, expandability for the changing
needs of a growing family, minimum maintenance, low cost, and new construction methods (Smith
2001). In the concept Schindler intended to demonstrate a variety of optimal space layouts and
multiple unit orientations, with the integration of both systematic composition and construction
techniques. Although the development of the project spanned more than ten years, and a series of
shelter plans underwent a variety of spatial transformations, they all share common compositional
principles and construction techniques. Schindler created four basic types of shelter plans for Shell
Construction [Fig. 11 and another four basic schemes using Panel Post Construction [Fig. 21.
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Figure I The Schindler Shelter with the Shell Construction system, four diffrent prototypes, including 3, 4,
4% and 5 room tjpes.
Although the designs appear different, the two construction systems share fundamental
principles in floor plan organization. First, each unit is arranged with a central hall. The kitchen,
bathroom and laundry are grouped as a unit to concentrate the plumbing system into a single wall.
By grouping in this way, supply lines, waste branches and soil pipes are simple and short, so that
plumbing stack will be saved. This centralized plumbing system allows economic maintenance
access for cleaning and repairing. The laundry area is provided in an open porch, affording an
excellent means of open-air drying. The remaining rooms are distributed along closet partitions:
one for the living room and another two for bedrooms. The main entrance to the house is adjacent
to the living room. A door in the living room and child's room is made to be accessible to the
garden. Finally, the garage is a separate unit, which can be added to any side of the house. The
garage is large enough to serve as a workshop and storage room. Garage doorways can front the
street or side of the house, allowing different types of driveways. The rooftop of the garage
provides space for sunbathing.
Figure 2 The Schindler Shelter with the Panel Post Construction svstern, four different prototypes
Figure 3 R. M. Schindler, Partial section/component model of the Panel Post Construction System
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3. JAVA APPLET HOUSING MODEL
The housing industry has begun to harness the benefits of information technology through
the numerous building industry manufacturers that maintain a web presence, the value of e-
commerce transacted on the web, and the amount of marketing dollars spent on the web. Web
marketing experts expect this number to grow rapidly as both sellers and buyers realize how much
detailed information is available to them online. The Internet becomes the place where
homebuyers first look to buy and sell their homes. Thus, e-commerce becomes an undeniable
current and future venue for the housing industry.
Although there has been phenomenal growth in commercial presence of the housing
industry on the Internet, exploitation of online user interactive housing design capabilities in the
housing industry is still in their infancy. Currently, therefore, we are developing a user interface
housing online model employing a Java Applet technology that allows users to modify and change
unit plans for their needs from a distance rather than manufacturers offering preset or fixed designs
on the Internet. It will also provide a new paradigm to directly contact to homebuilders and
customers. This process will also accelerate and improve the pre-construction design processes.
The Java applet is the graphical component of a user interface in a web browser. Basically,
a java-enabled model can be built on Java's applet technology that allows users to explore new
designs in the Web browser. It provides graphical user-oriented interface components for
displaying and interacting, designing with an object-oriented model loaded in the applet. The
following figure shows a snap shot of our implementation of a Java based interface for dynamic
retrieval of a set of housing design in plan.
4. CONCLUSIONS
R. M. Schindler's work in the early part of the 20th Century has been shown to have
applicability today, in the development of usable housing prototypes, which can demonstrate
flexibility and expandability. More than many such prototypes, his are comprehensive, containing
both design and construction methods in a unified manner, conscious always of achieving spatial
grace at modest cost.
The Schindler Shelter prototype, with its many variations, is particularly suited to the new
form of delivery of housing options to consumers, that of the Internet. In these studies, we have
introduced an interactive model system. This system is currently being developed as a 2D and 3D
interactive system where a 3D real-time model that is designed and displayed on the user's screen,
using real-time rather than a pre-built Java 3D model, is stored on the server. When the users'
designs and changes are completed in the 2D model, 3D Java models are automatically created on
the user's screen.
The data for making 3D housing prototypes have been carefully prepared in accordance
with the basic unit typology of Schindler and its variation capabilities. On the basis of the Java-
based interface floor plans, a user can retrieve a variety of the 3D models depending on how the
user manipulates the given data selection. In addition, the 2D and 3D models will be integrated
with a multitude of spatial referenced data, including materials, colors, texture, etc. Further
investigation will set up an information database that will provide all the detailed information and
options for the network user. The ongoing research also includes setting up information database
model where the net clients can transmit the entire inventory, the ordering, the shipping, the
payments, and so on. The 2D and 3D model will be integrated with a multitude of spatial
referenced data.
Schindler himself, part of a generation of California architects with European roots,
working in a city where romantic craftsman bungalows were often themselves built from
prefabricated kits bought from catalogues, would likely be pleased to find his work alive and
accessible to ordinary people in a new technological format.
REFERENCES
Goss, L. 1933. "The Garrett plastered House - A Frameless, Reinforced Unit," Progressive
Contractor, July 1933.
Habraken N.J. et al. 1976. Variations: The Systematic Design of Supports, Cambridge: The MIT
Laboratory of Architecture and Planning.
McCoy, E. 1960. Five California Architects, Reinhold Book Corporation, reprinted in 1987, Los
Angeles: Hennesey & Ingalls, Inc.
Samitz, A. 1988. R.M. Schindler, architect (1887-1953): a pupil of Otto Wagner, between
international style and space architecture, New York: Rizzoli.
Schindler, R.M. 1946. "Reference Frames in Space," Architect and Engineer, Vol. 165, pp. 10,40,
44-45.
Smith, E, et al. 2001. The Architecture of R.M. Schindler. Los Angeles: The Museum of
Contemporary Art.
Starr, K. 1996. Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California, New York: Oxford
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