Between Conventional and Experimental

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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 and responded to crises, nation-building, and housing shortages within the context of transnational and regional research.

The book’s contributions 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, notably in the USSR and Italy. The chapters' topics encompass colonial expansion, class, 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.

Regine Hess is a habilitation candidate at Technical University of Munich.

Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler is an associate professor at Sapir Academic College.

Tzafrir Fainholtz is a visiting researcher at Åbo Akademi University, Turku.

Yael Allweil is an associate professor at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.

This is an up-to-date book on a challenging subject. It presents innovative ideas on the conservation and reuse of prefabrication in architecture. - Ana Tostões, University of Lisbon