Foreword

Mass housing and prefabrication shaped global modernist architecture like no other aspect of industrialised construction. This book offers a comprehensive exploration of how both conventional and experimental prototypes and series gave rise to an architecture for all, often responding to crises, the imperatives of nation-building, and housing shortages by rapidly developing, distributing, and assembling structures. The book’s contributions, with a geographical emphasis on Europe and Israel, offer innovative approaches to the history of prefabrication. Some explore partially unearthed empirical ground, such as cases from Finland and Sweden, while others offer a fresh interpretation of prefabrication’s role in the history of global architecture and planning after WWII, notably in the USSR and Italy. The chapters encompass a broad spectrum of topics, including colonial expansion, international collaboration, and the achievements and setbacks of industrialised design. The authors scrutinise the cultural impact of mass housing and prefabrication, tracing this influence through exhibitions, memory culture, and typologies, ultimately concluding with an outlook on the preservation and repair of structures and their adaptation for the future. Within the broader context of transnational and regional research, Between Conventional and Experimental presents novel and forward-thinking approaches to prefabrication and mass housing. Drawing from transnational architectural history, construction history, housing studies, monument preservation, and exhibition studies, it effectively highlights the profound relevance of prefabrication history to our understanding of the cultural and material history of the built environment.