REVIEWS: BOOKS

Design in Modular Construction, by Mark Lawson, Ray Ogden and Chris

Goodier, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014

Design in Modular Construction, is a well-organized reference book that includes

over forty case studies of completed prefabricated buildings. Many historians
believe the British, the Japanese, and the Americans, developed the foundational
concepts that underlie 21st century modular construction. The three authors, each
of them teaching at separate universities in the UK, explore a variety of design
techniques, building types, and technical strategies. They have included a wide
range of modular buildings, most of them completed in the UK in the last ten to
fifteen years. It could be argued that the book serves as a counterpoint to Ryan
Smith’s Prefab Architecture, which focuses primarily on the U.S. construction
market. Smith’s book offers a similar mix of useful case studies and explanatory
images.

There is also a clear case for positioning Design in Modular Construction as a

follow-up to Gilbert Herbert’s Pioneers of Prefabrication: The British Contribution
in the Nineteenth Century, published in 1978. Herbert’s book explains the 19th
century British construction industry, emphasizing the innovative thinking that led
to the ‘systems’ built strategies later documented in Design in Modular
Construction. The British designers and builders that are discussed in Herbert’s
Pioneers of Prefabrication were primarily concerned with sending components of
buildings (or even complete modular buildings) to various parts of the then
burgeoning British Empire. These remote colonies had yet to fully experience
the industrial revolution that was radically transforming both British industries and
the countryside. The arrival of easy to assemble buildings helped change the
building culture in many British colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. It is
believed that some British construction techniques became common in these
remote colonies after the arrival of prefabricated buildings from the UK. It is
probably far more likely that many of these ideas were adapted to fit the labor
and materials available in the country.

Today, the contemporary British offsite construction industry is one of the most
sophisticated in the world. It is focused on optimizing material efficiency and
construction schedules, and on articulating the continuously evolving
construction logic of various modes of prefabrication. The book’s thorough
documentation of various prefab strategies makes a strong case for considering
the contemporary UK modular construction sector to be the logical inheritors of
the earlier British builders described in Herbert’s book. This new volume helps
clarify that specific building types often require unique strategies of offsite
construction. The design constraints, code requirements, materials and
functional adjacencies can vary substantially depending in the purpose of the
building. This book provides insight into some of the modular design ideas that
have been developed for various built projects. These strategies typically evolve
over years of trial and error, and sometimes become quite idiosyncratic to the
building type. The successful development of these complex buildings requires
considerable thought given to construction sequence, and constant attention to
the three-dimensional development of component parts. The case studies
included the book document some aspects of these patterns of design evolution.

In surveys of the general public, the word “prefab” remains unpopular in the UK
and the U.S. These surveys often find that the typical person in both countries
still prefers conventional, onsite construction – especially when it comes to
residential buildings. This lingering concern about the nature of prefab is likely
due to shoddy prefabricated construction in both countries during the World War
II era, and also during the thirty or forty years after the war. In the last 15 years
or so, the modular industries in both countries have slowly but surely improved
their reputation for both thoughtful design and quality construction. However, the
lingering stigma forces the modular industry in both countries to go ‘stealth,’
developing design strategies that de-emphasize the visual evidence of the offsite
nature of the construction.

The book is intended for architecture, engineering and construction

professionals, but is also structured like a textbook, making it useful for students
with a basic understanding of construction and structural design. Prefabricated
Systems: Principles of Construction by Knaack, et. al., and Components and
Systems: Modular Construction by Staib, et. al. are two other books focused on
contemporary buildings, both published by Birkhauser. The Knaack book
emphasizes construction systems over case studies, and offers a very nicely
illustrated overview of the prefabrication strategies found in Europe and a few
other countries beyond Europe. Similarly, the Staib book, which is part of
Birkhauser’s Detail series, documents and explains construction details of
prefabricated structures from a wider variety of countries, with an emphasis on
Europe. Both volumes are beautifully illustrated, perhaps with better drawings
and illustrations than Design in Modular Construction, yet neither book provides
as much detail into the thought process behind contemporary modular
construction, especially in the UK.

Design in Modular Construction is an excellent book for classroom use, and a

useful resource for architects, engineers or contractors that want to expand their
understanding of the current practice of offsite architecture in the UK and
beyond.

Review by John Quale, Director and Professor of Architecture, University of New

Mexico