Kit-of-Parts: A Review of Object-Oriented Construction Techniques

In pursuing construction and design concepts apporpriate for the information age,the authors have considered kit-of-parts theory.A kit-of-parts is a collection of discrete building components that are preengineered and designed to be assembled in a variety of ways to define a finished building.Since a well designed component can be mass-produced and used over and over again,fabrication processes can be worked out in advance for real-time manufacturing and automated assembly.This paper briefly traces the history of kit-of-parts construction techniques and categories some current methods from an architectural design perspective.Four categories of kit-of-parts systems are:JOINT-BASED,PANEL BASED,MODULE BASED and SPECIAL CONSTRUCTION.The paper concludes with descriptions of case study design of investigations conducted by the authors which demonstrate the advantage of pursuing kit-of-parts concepts in conjuction with architectural design processes and automated construction applications.