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Technological horizons
NOLOGICAL
HORIZONS Robert C. Turner EDITOR
MEnICA'Smost obsolescent industry." This censorious phrase has been applied to numerous industries, but probably to none more often than to the residential construction industry, And, at least until quite recent years, the charge of obsolescence or lack of technological progressiveness was not entirely unmerited. But the technological revolution is at long last beginning to hit the housing industry, and there are innumerable signs that a major breakthrough will occur in residential construction within the next 10 or 15 years. Perhaps the most extensive change will occur in types of materials used in house construction. In the past, we have used chiefly simple materials in the form in which they are found in nature. Construction methods and design have been sharply limited by the particular properties of these natural materials. Most walls, for example, have had to be solid and immovable to sustain the great loads of lumber and other heavy materials above them. Stone or concrete walls have had to be quite thick because stone, while it has great compressive strength, is brittle when subjected to twisting or bending. Walls and ceilings have been fiat surfaces because the grain of lumber runs more or less in a straight line.
A
CONSTRUCTION
MATERIALS
The r e c e n t - a n d future-development of a host of new synthetic materials will make possible more than a simple substitution of new materials for old. It will permit radical changes in design, structure, and method of fabrication. The exterior wall of today's house, for ex136 BUSINESS H O R I Z O N S - SPRING, 1 9 5 8
ample, is a crude and bulky package. It consists of studs, plates, and headers, which support, in addition to the roof load, lath and plaster or some sort of dry wall covering (plus paint or paper for appearance on the interior side); and sheathing and siding or some other veneer on the exterior side. In the hollow space inside is usually stuffed some insulating material of no structural value, plus a maze of wires, pipes, ducts, and conduits, the openings for which are cut by hand after the wall is partly erected, almost as if they were an afterthought. Even when wall panels are produced on assembly lines, much human manipulation of lumber components is required, and the process must be discontinuous, a panel at a time. The wall panel of tomorrow's house will in all probability be some sort of sandwich-panel construction. The filling of the sandwich will be the insulating material. Whether it be foamed styrene, urethane or one of the phenolics, honeycombed paper or plastic, or plastic-reinforced fiberglass, this light-weight insulating layer will be an integral part of the wall and a source of very considerable structural strength. The fact that it is structurally strong will make it possible to use, for the two faces of the wall, thin skins of aluminum, porcelainized or stainless steel, wood veneer, or any one of dozens of new plastics, with perhaps a thin reinforcing layer of some very hard cement. This will reduce weight to 10 to 20 per cent of today's weight. In most instances, the color on both inside and outside surfaces" of the panel will be integral to the skin, thus minimizing later maintenance. Walls of this construction can be produced entirely by machine in a continuous operation, the endless strips being cut into modular lengths as they emerge from the machine. Curved walls can be fabricated as readily as fiat ones, and indeed quarter-circle panels may be extensively used in place of today's right-angle, dead-space corners. Roofs will be of similar sandwich-panel construction. The ease of producing curved roof panels opens up a host of possibilities for improving the design of today's exceedingly dull roof lines. The roof panels will be supported by trusses spanning from exterior wall to exterior wall, or will be self-trussed, thus removing all load from interior walls. Interior walls can therefore become mov-
HORIZONS Robert C. Turner EDITOR
MEnICA'Smost obsolescent industry." This censorious phrase has been applied to numerous industries, but probably to none more often than to the residential construction industry, And, at least until quite recent years, the charge of obsolescence or lack of technological progressiveness was not entirely unmerited. But the technological revolution is at long last beginning to hit the housing industry, and there are innumerable signs that a major breakthrough will occur in residential construction within the next 10 or 15 years. Perhaps the most extensive change will occur in types of materials used in house construction. In the past, we have used chiefly simple materials in the form in which they are found in nature. Construction methods and design have been sharply limited by the particular properties of these natural materials. Most walls, for example, have had to be solid and immovable to sustain the great loads of lumber and other heavy materials above them. Stone or concrete walls have had to be quite thick because stone, while it has great compressive strength, is brittle when subjected to twisting or bending. Walls and ceilings have been fiat surfaces because the grain of lumber runs more or less in a straight line.
A
CONSTRUCTION
MATERIALS
The r e c e n t - a n d future-development of a host of new synthetic materials will make possible more than a simple substitution of new materials for old. It will permit radical changes in design, structure, and method of fabrication. The exterior wall of today's house, for ex136 BUSINESS H O R I Z O N S - SPRING, 1 9 5 8
ample, is a crude and bulky package. It consists of studs, plates, and headers, which support, in addition to the roof load, lath and plaster or some sort of dry wall covering (plus paint or paper for appearance on the interior side); and sheathing and siding or some other veneer on the exterior side. In the hollow space inside is usually stuffed some insulating material of no structural value, plus a maze of wires, pipes, ducts, and conduits, the openings for which are cut by hand after the wall is partly erected, almost as if they were an afterthought. Even when wall panels are produced on assembly lines, much human manipulation of lumber components is required, and the process must be discontinuous, a panel at a time. The wall panel of tomorrow's house will in all probability be some sort of sandwich-panel construction. The filling of the sandwich will be the insulating material. Whether it be foamed styrene, urethane or one of the phenolics, honeycombed paper or plastic, or plastic-reinforced fiberglass, this light-weight insulating layer will be an integral part of the wall and a source of very considerable structural strength. The fact that it is structurally strong will make it possible to use, for the two faces of the wall, thin skins of aluminum, porcelainized or stainless steel, wood veneer, or any one of dozens of new plastics, with perhaps a thin reinforcing layer of some very hard cement. This will reduce weight to 10 to 20 per cent of today's weight. In most instances, the color on both inside and outside surfaces" of the panel will be integral to the skin, thus minimizing later maintenance. Walls of this construction can be produced entirely by machine in a continuous operation, the endless strips being cut into modular lengths as they emerge from the machine. Curved walls can be fabricated as readily as fiat ones, and indeed quarter-circle panels may be extensively used in place of today's right-angle, dead-space corners. Roofs will be of similar sandwich-panel construction. The ease of producing curved roof panels opens up a host of possibilities for improving the design of today's exceedingly dull roof lines. The roof panels will be supported by trusses spanning from exterior wall to exterior wall, or will be self-trussed, thus removing all load from interior walls. Interior walls can therefore become mov-