The Wall Unit System designed by Konrad Wachsmann. Mobility of Elements

  1. Peña Fernández-Serrano, Martino 1
  1. 1 Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena
    info

    Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena

    Cartagena, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02k5kx966

Journal:
VLC arquitectura. Research Journal

ISSN: 2341-2747,  2341-3050

Year of publication: 2023

Volume: 10

Issue: 2

Pages: 7-29

Type: Article

DOI: 10.4995/VLC.2023.18252 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: VLC arquitectura. Research Journal

Abstract

Between 1944 and 1945, Konrad Wachsmann developed the Mobilar Structure system, which was subsequently contracted out to the Atlas Aircraft Corporation, a company that developed aeroplanes after the Second World War. Wachsmann's project deals with large hangars which in turn must be supported by the minimum number of vertical elements to maximise the movement of the aeroplanes. These first developments by Wachsmann, in the 1950s, inaugurated the three-dimensional structural frameworks of large spans that ended up in the typology known as Megastructure, which was very popular in the utopian groups of the 1960s. In this first project there are two elements, perhaps secondary, but of great design efficiency: the structural node and the mobile vertical enclosure called Wall Unit. The first one exemplifies the search for the universal knot in bar grids. The second investigates the flexibility, assembly and disassembly, foldability and mobility of the artefact. The ideas used will would be taken up by utopian groups such as Archigram and GEAM or architects such as Cedric Price during the 1960s. Sometimes it is in the secondary that we find the germ of the reception of architectural theories and concepts.

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Data source: Dialnet