Description
In the beginning of every project is curiosity. The significance of our work is that of a narrow path in a forest of unlimited possibilities. Thinking in systems corresponds to the essence of human nature. It aims to identify, penetrate, and organize; then to discover natural laws and obey them in a model. The development of systems is an indispensable tool for our times, the prerequisite for mobile life and global communication. Systems enable everyone to participate in everything.[1]
Systems that point the way to the future, especially building systems, have to be open for different purposes and changing uses, for improvements and further developments. Our work led us from the modular component systems to a kind of systematics for building. It has developed into a body of rules and regulations for construction processes and buildings, into proposals as to how individual parts can relate to each other and how they can be adapted to each other in a modular approach. We place in the foreground not the manufacturing of a product, but the way towards the solution of the task. In the search for solutions for building tasks the desire emerged to find generally valid principles of order that ought to be usable more than one time in the course of the work. We dispensed with the idea of how a building is created, and instead sought to understand the connections on a superordinate level. We subsumed the result of these deliberations under the term “general solution.” The step from the original solution to the general solution has absorbed me my whole life long. The natural environment too knows such secrets, laws and structures that we do not yet understand and which we do not know how to handle yet.
The search for principles of order that enjoy general validity led to the development of modular component systems. Buildings erected with these systems have a special quality of use and appearance. They are variations on arrangements of the modules of a general system. Such buildings can be modified and adapted to new requirements corresponding to the change in their use. As a result, the building’s appearance changes. Its value is determined by the quality of the modular component system and the quality of the arrangement of the components. The MAXI, MIDI, MINI and modular furniture systems are the result of a collaboration with Paul Schärer and the USM U. Schärer Söhne AG in Münsingen.
The MAXI steel construction system is used for single-storey large-span buildings. It consists of the following groups of elements: supporting structure, roof, and exterior and interior walls. The foundations, floor construction and building services are specially developed for each building. The supporting structure, comprising columns and trussed girders, can be extended horizontally in all directions. The elements of the outer and inner walls can be disassembled, and are interchangeable within the framework of the modular arrangement. This system is suitable for the building of production plants where it is necessary to assure easy alteration and extension.
MAXI steel construction system
The MIDI steel construction system is a modular component system for multi-storey buildings with high-density installations. All construction components and their interdependencies are organized into an overall modular system. This way it is possible to integrate object-specific components or ready-made components into the modular system as well. The geometric organizations of the conduit systems for the building service installations too are part of the total organization. They are coordinated within the framework of the ARMILLA installation model.
MIDI steel construction system
The MINI steel construction system is used for constructing one- to two-storey buildings with spans of up to 8.40 m. It consists of the following groups of elements: supporting structure, floor, roof and external walls. Foundations, basement, and interior fittings and accessories are specially developed for each building. The supporting structure of columns and girders of cold-formed sheet steel profiles can be horizontally extended in all directions. The elements of the envelope can be disassembled, and they are interchangeable within the framework of the modular organization. This system is used for the construction of buildings for a wide range of different uses, such as ateliers, offices, schools, sales kiosks and exhibition booths, waiting rooms, and houses. The advantages of this construction system are the short building times and the rapid and easy refurbishment, adaptive re-use and extension possibilities.
MINI steel construction system
The USM Haller modular furniture system in the series of USM modular furniture systems is a modular component system with the following assembly groups: supporting framework, claddings, fittings and accessories. It includes all necessary elements for building a wide variety of objects such as open or closed filing cabinets and equipment cupboards, outer frameworks for pieces of furniture, small drawer- or shelf-units on wheels, reception desks, etc. These objects can be easily disassembled and reassembled in other combinations to form different objects. In contrast to the steel construction system, the modular furniture system is a complete kit or a closed system. In contrast, the steel construction systems are open systems, because they can only be assembled into a complete building with object-specific construction components.
USM Haller modular furniture system
Often one pursues an idea without knowing where it is going to go. One frequently gets lost this way, and returns, disappointed, to one’s starting point. Occasionally, however, the feeling leads to the hotspots that trigger the word “invention.” Only a few of those hotspots stand the test of time. It appears as if the things of this world always have to be reinvented, as if invention were a type of rediscovery. At the beginning, that which is found is only a part of the whole. Finding this part triggers off the discovery of other parts, until eventually the whole is found. That means, if a part of a whole is really invented, then the way to the whole has been opened. The invented part carries the picture of the whole in itself. One should not be afraid to solve a part of a complex problem, for if this partial solution is a genuine one, the way toward the whole will have been opened. But one has to be careful when evaluating one’s work, for one invents on the basis of certain assumptions. These map out the boundaries of the conceptual space in which the solution might be found. Therefore, false assumptions can make a suitable solution impossible. Everyone is exposed to this danger.
The research works “Geometric Coordination”, “Problems of Joining” and ARMILLA were born out of the hope of achieving more clarity in the search for solutions to problems that were waiting to be solved. They supplied the basis for the development of the modular component systems and led to a generally applicable systematics for building. The theoretical studies were tested in practice on actual works contracts. The individual buildings are prototypical applications, field tests in a process leading to a “general solution.”
From left to right:
Geometric coordination and modular organization: adaptation of the USM Haller modular furniture system to human activities and organizational requirements
Problems of joining, form – movement – flow of forces: cube of slabs with magnetic connections for the study of the motion-sequence in the construction of the 27 cells
ARMILLA operational and installation model: detail of the ground plan of the pilot building with envelope plan of the branch conduits for media distribution
Geometric coordination covers the adjustment or calibration of the individual building components to each other and in interplay with the environment. The technical possibilities available today, the existing local structures and in particular, the needs of people are taken into account in the development of the modular organization. The starting point is the analysis of the existing constraints and/or ancillary conditions and the functional connections. In planning buildings, a modular organization with a square grid of 1.20 m has proved its worth for ground plans. Every orthogonal structure can be traced back to square fields within a linear grid. In this way it becomes possible to process even existing and conventionally erected buildings with the ARMILLA methodology described below. Non-orthogonal structures can be represented by a number of identical standard areas and be planned using analogue rules and regulations.
from left to right
MIDI overall component kit: modular order with load-bearing structure, wall units and connection areas for media distribution, m = planning module (here 120 cm)
Modular order with linear grid: m = planning module (90-180 cm), s = main module, structural grid (multiples of m), b = linear grid (2b < m). Example of the MAXI steel construction system: m = 120 cm, bx = by = 9 cm, n ≤ 6
Residential pavilion of the SBB Training Center in Löwenberg, Switzerland: articulation of the ground plan in standard areas on the basis of a polar grid. a = project standard “room”, b = project standard “interior zone”
It is the aim of this work to develop a model that describes building components of building systems so that the characteristics of their connecting members are identifiable in the interplay between form, movement, and connection of forces. It addresses the essential problems in the development of building systems, the geometric coordination of the system´s modular elements, the development of their connections, the control of the flows of forces in a static system and the securing of the space for movement so that the elements can be brought into their planned position.
Assembly diagram for slabs with mandrels as joining elements: fitting together and dismantling of the slabs parallel to the slab plane, in a specific sequence. The connection of forces is perpendicular to the slab plane
ARMILLA is the result of research and development work over the course of more than four decades in our office in Solothurn, at the Institut für industrielle Bauproduktion at the University of Karlsruhe and in collaboration with digitales bauen engineering gmbh in Karlsruhe. The starting point was the aim to supply useable floor areas with all the necessary media over the whole surface without conflicts, to design conduit systems with IT support, to manufacture industrially portions of conduit systems as elements of component systems, and to rationalize the assembly, alteration and maintenance of conduit systems. In the course of the work, ARMILLA developed into a network of methods and aids, entirely suitable for the organization of kinetic systems and functions in general. We expect to uncover further application possibilities, both with regard to the smallest building components and in urban development.
From left to right:
Main building of the Aargau University of Applied Sciences (FHA) in Windisch, Switzerland. Coordination plan for media distribution. Dimensions 52.80 m x 52.80 m
Total City – a model: kinetic system of the fourth order. Dimensions 160 km x 160 km
The operational model is a guide for the planning process. It describes the contents and sequences of the individual planning stages. The construction plans of the different trades are generated in collaboration with the consultants as component kits, stage by stage.
From left to right:
Installation systems concept plan: geometric positioning of installation bodies
Water line plan: rough draft of the water mains
Installation systems envelope plan: reserved cavities for the water mains
From left to right:
Water, air, heating, and electrics envelope plan: all envelope plans generated and coordinated
Components plan: symbol modules as components of the mains
Water, air, heating, and electrics form unit plan
From left to right:
ARMILLA general installation model: offshoot, branch, and trunk envelopes
MIDI-ARMILLA special installation model: offshoot envelopes for K-shaped mains
The ARMILLA installation model organizes the installation rooms of a building in all its interrelations. It is a model for the modular coordination and the cooperative design of the technical systems of a building. The organizational rules of the ARMILLA installation model ensure that when there is a change of use, the building can be altered or converted without destroying anything. Building anew is only a special case of conversion or alteration. The general installation model is an ideal structure, in which the assembly of conduits is regulated without limiting conditions. The installation geometry is developed on an orthogonal planning grid. The modular organizations of the different systems of building components are harmonized with each other and coordinated with the pattern of the potential connecting spots. The false ceiling is articulated in layered levels and horizontal bands. The general installation model can be translated into a special object model through modification. The latter is identified through the characteristics of the respective building systems. In the example shown here, ARMILLA is adapted to the overall MIDI construction system.
ARMILLA transfers information technology concepts and methods to architecture and its planning, construction and operational processes. Buildings projected in this way can be ideally represented in software structures. The “genetic code” of a building is created through the compact description in an object-oriented database. All processes of use and conversion can be derived from and monitored through this. In comparison to conventional planning processes, ARMILLA leads to significant improvements in the control of quality, costs and scheduling. Buildings are no longer drawn, but programmed. Through the IT support new fields of activity are opened up, among them, in particular, industrial prefabrication, logistics and assembly support, building automation and facility management. With this methodology, a building in all its dependencies, from planning to demolition and disposal, can be captured, monitored and operated. In this way, the criteria for sustainable building are fulfilled to a large extent.
It is always a question of fitting. Somethings fits or does not fit. The closer we come to the point at which everything will be fitting, the more precisely we act. Fittingness has something to do with veracity, ethics, and aesthetics. And it also has to do with voice, with communication and encounter. Suddenly a mood is there, by which something will be triggered, something that could not be set off beforehand. In music, one learns to handle voices and elements of mood. In this sense, architecture is related to music. Plans are scores. The building is a body of rules and regulations comparable to an instrument that prescribes a system of values and relations and at the same time, makes it possible to play an almost unending variety of tunes. Playing successfully is called meditating.
Footnotes
cf. Hans Wichmann (ed.); System-design Fritz Haller: Bauten-Möbel-Forschung, Basel, Boston, Berlin, 1989.
Originally published in: Jürgen Adam, Katharina Hausmann, Frank Jüttner, Industrial Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2004.