Machines for Living: Existenzmachina

Thesis poster for graduate work exploring automation and productization of architecture.

If the industrial manufacturing process can produce a wide range of necessary goods for society, then why can’t the same process be harnessed to produce higher quality and more affordable architecture? How can a house be built more like a car? Like a computer? What lessons from other industries must construction and architecture learn? How can living-machines of the future revolutionize urban infrastructure? Become their own infrastructure?

This project examine the potential for a dwelling made of pre-fabricated, pre-measured modules and components to be completed with minimal assembly on-site. Vertical integration between design and construction was explored as a way to reduce time, reduce cost, and increase quality of the final product. As a testing ground, I explored recent changes in Seattle’s zoning regulations as the city grapples with its housing crisis. Seattle’s efforts to densify have resulted in upzoning and encouragement of DADUs (800sf max rentable backyard cottage units). This typology presents an ideal opportunity to test ideas of lean manufacturing in the construction process - transforming the process from “construction of materials” to “assembly of integrated components”. During so will reduce construction risks, reduce decisions for client, and reduce site disturbance.