It was this early hands-on experience that fixed the twin poles of his architectural philosophy: on the one hand, his insistence that architecture is above all a practical art, and on the other, his convention that building can be improved by the application of the kind of systematic, problem-solving discipline that characterises modern industrial technologies.

Ironically, the material with which Schulitz apprenticed rarely appears prominently in his work as a designer. But certain of its attributes have become important themes in Schulitz's architecture: Bricks are standardised, prefabricated building components which relate to each other in a grid of fixed dimensions, and since the 19th century, they have been made by machines. If the actual material does not appeal to Schulitz, the use of mass produced, modular, coordinated components does.

Pioneering Use of Industrial Methodology for Housing Development

Beverly Hills Home:  An outdoor room creates a scenic overlook for the site's spectacular views.   

When Schulitz arrived in California in the 1970s, Ezra Ehrenkrantz had just completed the prototype for his School Construction Systems Development (SCSD) in Palo Alto. This system was composed of sub-systems which were developed by different companies on the basis of specified performance requirements. This created a catalogue of components that was thoroughly compatible with one another and allowed manufacturers to market their products as part of an open building system. In 10 years, more than 2,000 school projects were completed using this open building system. This example in industrial building led Schulitz to begin the Team for Experimental Systems-Building Techniques (T.E.S.T.), a workshop at the University of California Los Angeles whose goal was to create a similar building method for housing. An important part of the work was to put together a catalogue of standardized products. The resultant open building system enabled the smallest projects to be constructed using industrial means.

Schulitz House, Beverly Hills, Calif.

The first T.E.S.T. building, Schulitz' own L.A. home, was a building made of universally usable standard parts that responded to a unique building location. Schulitz purchased a piece of unwanted land high in the Los Angeles, Calif., hills-unwanted for its 40 slope that made building conventional structures difficult at best. The difficulty was overcome by erecting a steel structure that was put up by crane in just two days, creating horizontal decks from which the work could proceed safely. Wherever possible, bolted connections were chosen in place of welded ones.

The Schulitz House  

The frame structure allowed all walls to be non-bearing and demountable. Large glass surfaces on the southwest façade were used to capture the view towards the city and the Pacific. The house takes full architectural advantage of the spectacular views with a stepped section to accommodate the slope and a suspended terrace, like an open air room, to maximise the view. The gently sloping site is exploited to create a series of relaxed, split-level living spaces, varying in height and subtly lit by high-level windows.

Construction on the site's 40^o slope was facilitated by a steel beam frame that was installed in two days.  

Adjustable louvers were used to protect the outdoor deck and the glass on the main level from heat gain. The louvers were positioned to allow the sun to reach the deck until late morning to dry off the dew, then to protect the deck during the hot afternoon hours, and finally to allow the house to capture the sunset's beauty and the day's last bit of warmth. No air-conditioning was installed. Natural cross ventilation, with the heat rising and escaping through the upper level windows, was sufficient for a comfortable environment.

Teacher and Researcher

Schulitz has combined practise with teaching and research throughout his career. For him there are no boundaries between these activities. Every project and building produced by his practise is also a vehicle for research. His house in Lehre, for example, uses timber roof beams braced by steel tension members. This is not just an architectural concept, but a genuine attempt to apply the principles of lightweight, long-span structures on a domestic scale.

This inventive, problem-solving approach also is applied to the question of environmental control. The Lehre house has ingenious "up and over" insulated panels which cover the glass walls in winter, leaving the glazed roof of the courtyard to provide natural light in the living spaces.

El Centro, Calif, Redevelopment

But Schultz's research extends beyond the limited fields of building construction and environmental control. The Beverly Hills house is a prototype for a building system, but it is also part of a larger urban vision. In the development project for El Centro, an urban redevelopment project, the application of similar constructional and dimensional principles is applied to the solution of specific social problems on a large scale. The obsession with detail, with the way materials and components fit together, is matched by an equal concern for the way buildings fit together to make complete urban environments.

Provision for residential housing became a top priority for the revival of El Centro's downtown area. However, there were serious roadblocks in elevated land costs and taxes which made single-family dwellings cost-prohibitive. But the cheaper alternative of multi-family housing was against local zoning laws which supported single-family dwellings. Additionally the city lot orientation made it difficult to position dwellings properly to control sun exposure, of prime importance in this desert climate. Consequently, the most important, complex part of the redevelopment was to formulate a new framework for housing that would provide attractive, comfortable dwellings while achieving the zoning law densities.

El Centro's framework is set up as a special zoning district with guidelines that centralize decision-making only as it regards the communal and urban design functions, leaving as much decision-making power as possible to the property owners. The guidelines for the individual dwelling units were driven by the T.E.S.T. construction method. The future resident would be able to choose among seven different unit types, each with variations in size and number of rooms. A total of 30 plan variations were developed, theoretically making an unlimited number of possible floor plans. Materials chosen for the dwellings were limited to light weight elements that could be assembled by untrained labour, without a crane. Floors and roofs were wood-steel composite, open-web joists with plywood floor panels that could be lifted into place by two men. The houses could be built as completely finished buildings or erected as a basic shell to be finished later by the residents.

Hollywood T.E.S.T.

An inexpensive site in Hollywood, Calif., situated in the foothills above Los Angeles offered a perfect opportunity to further test the El Centro building concept. For 30 years, the site had remained undeveloped because of a 50m x 2m retaining wall situated alongside the property. Schulitz found a simple solution: Use the exterior wall of the ground floor garage as a retaining wall and fill the space between the new and old walls to form an interesting garden. Two adjoining houses were erected on the site. A standardized module was used to lay out the floor plans and the elevations, providing standard building parts that could be used without cutting and creating waste. All structural wall elements were delivered pre-cut to the site and all of the non-bearing studs were designed with standard dimensions. The minimal amount of material required to be cut onsite bewildered many of the local people by the absence of the usual construction-site rubble.

Just as in the El Centro Project, most of the components had been planned so that their weight would be limited. At the most, only two workers without help from cranes or other lifting devices would be needed for the assembly. The heaviest pieces were the wood and steel joists, whose six-meter span allowed for easy hand installation. Because of the simplicity, untrained workers could complete the build. The elimination of unnecessary finish materials became the hallmark of this technique.

The difference between El Centro and this project did not lie in the materials or the construction process but rather in the spacious floor plans, 175-220 m, considered quite large for two-bedroom units, even by Californian standards.

These houses show that the direct application of standard, prefabricated industrial parts can bring about a certain aesthetic quality that appeals even to higher income groups. In this case, the residents include a film director and an art collector.

Short-List Winner

Schulitz + Partner's entry for the 1st International Architecture Competition for Sustainable Housing uses the same open building system. To learn more about their entry, visit the Schulitz + Partner entry page

The projects featured in this article are just a very small part of the firm's expansive work. To learn more about Schulitz + Partner, including their world-class work in industrial, transportation, exhibition and office building construction, visit their website at http://www.schulitz.de/  

Source: Excerpted from Buildings and Projects, Schulitz + Partner, 1996 Ernest & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GMBH, Berlin (ISBN 3-433-02473-1)

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