Modular Construction System

Architect: Dilworth Eliot Studio

Location: Los Angeles and Tracy, California

Client:      Contractor

Status:     In progress

Project manager, Concept (Office Building), CD and Shop Drawings (Classtooms)

A proprietary modular construction system, with modules similar to shipping containers - steel frames with curtain wall infills and exterior rainscreen. The system is mainly intended for use by the LA Unified School District to replace existing, aging, temporary structures as well as quickly and easily build new facilities or addiitons. It recieved DSA approval in 2018. The system's details were developed to accomplish the full factory to site built assembly process, while adhering to the strict DSA structural (gravity and seismic) constraints.

Within the system's structure and envelope requirements, many design options are possible: From the modules layout, the window-wall solid/glazing composition, and the rainscreen materials. It can also be used for programs other then education. Its flexibilty is demonstrated in the design of a 12,160 sq ft office building in a new industrial park in Tracy. The modular elements - steel frames, window-wall envelope and exterior rain screen - are assembled and composed to create a dynamic structure, which relates to its context of industrial park adjacent to agriculture fields.