Eduardo Torroja and industrialization of the machine à habiter, 1949-1961

Abstract

Eduardo Torroja's legacy is rife with elements whose historical impact has been insufficiently analyzed but which were important links in the chain forged around the development and industrialization of new housing, a demand voiced by the Modern Movement since the early twentieth century. It was in 1920 that Le Corbusier coined his well-known term for new housing, the machine à habiter or "machine for living (in)", in an inspired attempt to emphasize the need to involve building in the industrial revolution that had been changing the world since the turn of the century. Architecture would have to be willing to abandon construction as a craft to make way for rationalization, industrialization and prefabrication. The home seen as a machine would be a useful object built by assembling industrialized parts, manufactured - like cars, airplanes or boats. The corollary was Le Corbusier's defence of the need to create a "box of building units", non-existent at the time, to industrialize architecture. Eduardo Torroja, founder in 1934 of the Instituto Técnico de la Construcción y la Edificación, which in just a few short years would reach international acclaim, spearheaded the development of Spain's precarious and artisanal construction industry. The industrialization of housing played an essential role in the ensuing research. The outcome of that endeavour, the appearance of new patents, standards and structural and building elements, gradually filled the "box of building units" and contributed to attaining Modernity's architectural and engineering goals.