In the realm of architecture, modular design has been both a tool of great potential and an enigma wrapped in contradiction. It promises flexibility, speed, and sustainability, yet it has often struggled to transcend the limits imposed by materiality, systems, and human imagination. Mod Time: Dreaming of an Alternative Future for Modular Design begins as a search for definition and ends as a journey into the limit and architect practice, challenging the conventional wisdom about modularity’s past and inviting readers to reconsider its place in the future of design.
Modular design casts a magical dust over a human-made object. It embodies the ingenuity of the planner, the designer, the engineer, the architects and even the builders. The factory introduced the ability to distort both speed and distance. Building materials could be made faster and at a greater distance from the site. Industrialisation disrupted the way in which buildings were conceived and yet modular design persists as a kind of interpretive salvo: we look to decode. And yet, the closer one gets to the history of modular design the more chimeras appear. The future was bright because manufacturing would solve our problems. Architecture has always been enamored with problem-solving. Proper planning, speedy logistics, the compartmentalisation of matter and the optimisation of time ushers in a better process of making. Process is the eternal fount of modular design intelligence. This book is filled with ghosts and fairies. It is haunted by realities of failures and the glorious floating images of visions.
