Valoración formal del sistema del panel universal de Konrad Wachsmann y Walter Gropius: el valor estético de la packaged house

Abstract

This research focuses on the study of the Universal Panel System created by the architects Walter Gropius and Konrad Wachsmann, a prefabricated building system designed to build dwellings in the face of the urgent need of the time in the Second World War.

The initial project is born from the conception of a universal system with the possibility of infinitely growing and ordering in a number of ways from a multifunctional element; the panel, articulated by a single joining method; the metallic connector. The intention of the architects was to reach a variety of dwellings adapted to different needs.

The system was designed based on the demand of the time, which were emerging dwellings, where it was required to adapt to minimum spaces and be low cost. The architects had, in addition, to face the criticism of the monotony of identical dwellings that characterized the prefabricated buildings, therefore, the system was thought with the possibility of varying the layout of the elements that make up the buildings.

Through the study of House A, a prototype of the project, it seeks to identify the constructive, functional and formal guidelines that were raised in the design. From this information, it is intended to give way to an experimentation process, where two dwellings will be designed in different conditions to House A, but with the same elements, in this way the flexibility of the system to be coupled to other domestic requirements and compliance with their condition of universality will be verified.