PREFABRICATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1937, Page 9

PREFABRICATION.

HOUSE BUILDING METHODS. WHAT DOES FUTURE HOLD. I "In viewing the future of the prefabricated house, we must consider the opinions of the industrialist, consumer, idealist, sociologist, architect, romanticist, nationalist, economist, contractor and speculative builder, labour union, manufacturer and—most powerful— public taste, before we can arrive at a logical answer as to ite future," says Eugene Raskin in the "American Architect." "Thinking contractors and builders, therefore, are almost unanimous in turning a facade of hearty contempt to the whole subject of prefabrication, though one or two have been neard, in melancholy moments, to express a conviction that the ultimate success of prefabrication is inevitable. Whether or not they are right, the future alone will tell. "The existing building trades, under a system of prefabrication, would be in very much the same position as the building contractors to whom we have already referred. Since only a few skilled mechanics would be needed to assemble each house on the site, such crafts as plastering, carpentrj' and others would face virtual extinction, union leaders consider that eventually these men would be absorbed into the factories where the houses are produced; but such loner range optimism would be but poor consolation to a man fa<*in<» the jmmediate loss of his livelihood, without doubt, the growth of prefabrication will not take place without bitter opposition from organised labour. "Certain building materials (shingles for example) would be very little in' demand if prefabricated houses were generally accepted. Naturally enough, the manufacturers of such materials will wield whatever Influence they possess to protect themselves against the development of any trend which mi<*ht injure their prosperity. ° "Despite Hollywood and the fashionable journals, the overwhelming majority of Americans still prefer some form of traditional home architecture to that type of dwelling which they so frequently call a 'shoe-bos,' or somethinT even less complimentary. Anyone who has had a sufficiently varied contact with the building public knows that its taste is still very far from won over to what we call modernism. The fact is, that prefabricated houses are forced by fabricating methods to have more or less simple geometrical forms and smooth surfaces. This semblance of modernism counts against the prefabricated house as far as public taste is concerned."