Construction Begins on NYC's First Prefab Steel and Concrete Residential Development

VIDEO:The Stack from GLUCK


Prefabrication has long been heralded as a possible way to infill NY vacant sites, however it is only in recent years that it has become a solid practical solution rather than an experimental concept.  Prefabrication has become popular in recent years due to the efficiency and quality it affords. The result generally leads to lower construction costs, less waste, less energy consumption, less noise and pollution on site, and tighter quality control. It also provides a convenient way to build on some of New York's smaller sites, which don't have the space to host traditional construction. Plus the reduction in cost means that high quality housing can be made available to lower income New Yorkers.

Dubbed 'Broadway Stack', the 38,000 square foot building will contain 28 high quality, moderate income apartments atop 4,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan. At the moment, 5,000 square feet worth of traditional foundations and services exists on-site, awaiting the imminent arrival of fifty-six prefabricated modules from a factory in America. The assembly of these modules into a seven-story building will take four weeks, with an additional three months after for connecting utilities, assembling the facade and adding the finishing touches. 

Habitat 67 by Moshe Safdie

Habitat 67, designed by the Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie at the World Exposition of 1967, was originally intended as an experimental solution for high-quality housing in dense urban environments. Safdie explored the possibilities of prefabricated modular units to reduce housing costs and allow for a new housing typology that could integrate the qualities of a suburban home into an urban high-rise.

Reflecting on the project’s significance in “A look back at habitat ’67” Safdie stated that “Habitat ‘67 is really two ideas in one. One is about prefabrication, and the other is about rethinking apartment-building design in the new paradigm.”

Habitat 67 was constructed from 354 identical and completely prefabricated modules (referred to as “boxes”) stacked in various combinations and connected by steel cables. The apartments vary in shape and size, since they are formed by a group of one to four of the 600 square-foot “boxes” in different configurations. Each apartment is reached through a series of pedestrian streets and bridges, along with three vertical cores of elevators for the top floors. Service and parking facilities are separated from the tenant’s circulation routes, located on the ground floor.

The prefabrication process of the 90-ton boxes took place on-site. The basic modular shape was molded in a reinforced steel cage, which measured 38 x 17 feet. Once cured, the concrete box was transferred to an assembly line for the insertion of electrical and mechanical systems, as well as insulation and windows. To finalize the production, modular kitchens and bathrooms were installed, and finally a crane lifted each unit to its designated position.

By stacking concrete “boxes” in variant geometrical configurations, Safdie was able to break the traditional form of orthogonal high rises, locating each box a step back from its immediate neighbor. This ingenious method provided each apartment with a roof garden, a constant flow of fresh air and a maximum of natural light: qualities which were unprecedented for a twelve story apartment complex. Habitat 67 thus pioneered the integration of two housing typologies—the suburban garden home and the economical high-rise apartment building.

source: archdaily.com