Modular Co-ordination in Canadian Building

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Technical Note (National Research Council of Canada. Division of Building Research), 1957-08-01

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Modular Co-ordination in Canadian Building

Kent, S. R.

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DIVISION OF BUILDING RESEARCH

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA

/

']['EClHIN][ CAlL

NOTE

No.

232

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

PREPARED BY S.R o Kent CHECKED BY

FOR INTERNAL USE

APPROVED BY N.B.H.

PREPARED FOR Discussion DATE August,

1957

SUBJECT Modular Co-ordination in Canadian Building

The various systems of modular co....ordination have been determined by the building materials available, and the size of building components used on the job. Where machinery places large factory-assembled standard components, the problems in co-ordina-tion are much greater than where hand labour sets small components, many of which are custom-made for the job o

Canada builds basically in three ways: with wood frame, with skeleton frame of concrete or steel and with load bearing unit masonry. The wood frame building is clad with unit masonry or wood and often makes use of one large module

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inches, as manufacturers of plywood and wallboard have produced products' of this dimension only. Concrete frames are cast in place and steel frames are shop cut to designed job sizes and erected, mem-ber by memmem-ber on the site, both with infilling of unit masonry, cut

stone, and glass or metal panelso All methods rely on site assemb-lage of materials with ten factory-assembled techniques being

employed. Components of various large dimensions have been designed by a few architects for economies in repetition of custom-made units or simplicity in erection, but no standard large-size components are usedo Machinery used in Canadian building is mainly confined to mix-in-transit concrete trucks, cranes for erection of steel frames, hoists, continuous belts for raising masonry units one or two storeys, electric saws and drills, pack loading trucks for pallets of brick, and back-hoes and bulldozers for excavating and gradingo Shop fabricated stock units are wood, aluminum and-unglazed steel windows, interior wood doors, frames and trim, and precast concrete floor and roof panels. Shop fabricated custom-made units are metal office partitions, porcelain on steel curtain wall panels, wood and steel trusses and arches, kitchen cabinets and interior fitmentso The only new building techniques being used are the vertical lift concrete slab method of casting

struc-ｴｾ｡ｬ floors and the shop fabrication of sections of wood frame walls o

The lack of industrial progress in Canadian building techniques compared to that of Europe may be due to the fact that the scattered population makes transportation of large units

2

-expensive or to Canadavs lesser need for essential sheltero What-ever the reasonj building techniques are still basically pre-war o

It is natural for construction in Canada to develop along similar lines with a great deal of the building in the United States when machinesj productsj and trade and labour organizations readily

cross the border& This has not been the case with modular co-ordin-ationo The Canadian organizationsj paralleling the American

Instit-ute of Architects, ProducersU _{Council, National Association of House}

Builders, and the Associated General Contractors of America, all sponsors of modular co-ordination in the United States, remained inactive in this work until 19560 Consequently, only within the last year has the Canadian program begun to take shape0 In general

this has consisted of establishing standards committees and teaching modular co-ordination to architects, builders and manufacturers&

Modular Co-ordination Standards

In October 1956 at the request of the Division of Build-ing Research the Canadian Standards Association formed a committee to establish the size of the module to be used in Canada, and to define the modular terminologyo The committee, composed of members from twelve phases of the building industry, met and agreed on a module of

4

incheso The standard is being drafted now and will probably be completed by Septembero It will be based on the ASA document A620 l with consideration being given to the glossary of

the European Productivity Agency Project

1740

The National Concrete Products Association has spon-sored a GSA standard on concrete masonry products and to date the sub-committees are working on the quality specificationso ｾ･ｮ

completed9 this standard will determine the appropriate modular sizes for concrete masonry blocks and bricks, based on the above-mentioned general modular standardo The concrete brick and block

industry is one of the fastest growing post-war building indus-triesi as blocks are used in many parts of Canada for foundation walls, exposed interior and exterior walls, and as back-up for clay brick masonryo Because of the lastj manufacturers must

make a variety of sizes to bond with the various sizes of clay bricks, and so they are most anxious to promote a system of co=ordination o

The eSA specifications on Brick and Hollow Tile, pub-lished in ＱＹＵＴｾ accept the wide range of brick sizes throughout Canada and determine only permitted toleranceso Steps are now being taken to have modular dimensions for clay brick and tile added to these ｳｰ･｣ｩｦｩ｣｡ｴｩｯｮｾ

The Canadian Government Specifications Board is pre-paring a standard on drafting room practice for federal govern-ment architectural officeso Modular drafting procedures are being

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House Builders

The National House Builders Association has shown keen interest in the use of modular co=ordination in house building and two members of the Research Committee are putting it into prac-ticeG One9 a builder of custom houses, has prepared drawings by the modular method9 using key reference grid lines on 4-inch

in-tervals G These drawings9 he finds9 are easier to prepare due to

the reduction of decisions on dimensioning9 everything being on the Ｔ］ｩｮ｣ｾ multiple9 and simpler to follow on the job due to

elimination of fractions o The other member shop fabricates wood stud walls on 4-inch multipleso

Professional Associations

The Ontario Association of Architects9 has taken an active lead in educating the profession on modular co-ordination and in establishing liaison with manufacturers on modular pro-ducts G Last summerp the OoAoAo accepted the recommendation of its committee studying uniform brick sizes, and endorsed the changing of brick to modular sizeso Local manufacturers agreed to make the change when there was evidence of a continuing demand! To create this demand the committee began an educational program for teach-ing-modular co=ordination to members of the Association o The first step was to feature a discussion panel and a modular display at

the annual meeting in Februaryo This meeting created much interest, but many architects still felt they did not know enough on the

subject to introduce modular drafting int0 their officeso The committee is therefore arranging a series of lecture-workshops on modular ｣ｯｾｯｲ､ｩｮ｡ｴｩｯｮ and drafting to be beld during the autumn in Torontoo As .well as carrying on the internal educational program the ｣ｯｲｲｾｩｴｴ･･ will also approach other manufacturers of non=modular building productso

A meeting has been arranged through the Director of the Division of Building Research for the discussion of modular ｣ｯｾｯｲ､ｩｮ｡ｴｩｯｮ with the Toronto Branch of the Engineering Instit-ute of Canadao This group consists primarily of civil and

mech-anical engineers, many of whom are in private practice working with ｡ｲ｣ｨｩｴ･ｾｴｳ in the building industryo

Student Education

As in the United Statesp the teaching of modular drafting and modular construction in the Canadian universitiesR

schools of architecture has been neglectedo Until this yearp LVEcole des Beaux Arts in Montreal was the only one of the five

schools of architecture that had attempted any work in modular o This year a few lectures were given in all the schools and some drawings were prepared at the University of Torontoo All schools are planning more extensive training for the next session o

In the architectural department of the Ryerson Institute of Technology at Toronto9 where architectural draftsmen are

ｴｲ｡ｩｮ･､ｾ lectures and instruction in modular drafting were given and some drawing was prepared for the fir st time thi s year0 Here

｡ｧ｡ｩｮｾ more will be done next session o

Division of Building Researchp National Research Council

Shortly after the formation of t he Division, the

Direc-ｴｯｲｾ MroR"F o Legget sought to initiate a Canadian program for co-ordinating building materials and in

1951

called together rep-resentative manufacturers in the building industryo The meeting agreed that the basis of dimensional co-ordination should be on multiples of the 4=inch module but positive action following the meeting failed9 ·due to the lack of personnel with enough time to promote the systemo It was not until

1956

that the Division was able to begin a continuing program when Prof" Stanley Ro Kent

of the University of Torontoi joined the summer staff of the Divi-sion and was subsequently retained as a consultant"

Within the last ｹ･｡ｲｾ the Division has established connections in the United States with trade associations, pro-fessional associations9 architects and schools of architecture that have been sponsoring the American modular program" This relationship has been most friendly and has greatly assisted the Canadian work o

Lectures on modular co=ordination have been given to the annual meeting of the National Concrete Products Association, to the architecture students of McGill Universityo LiEcole des Beaux Arts in Montrea19 and the Ryerson Institute of Teohnology in Toronto, and lectures are planned for the architects in the Maritimes and for the Toronto Branch of the Engineering Institute of Canada"

The Division is following the work of the Modular Society in England, the British Standards Institute and9 through the London Office of the National Research Counci19 developments in the European Productivity Agency Project 174 on Modular Co-ordination in Building"

The yearqs work in modular has revealed the lack of current descriptive literature9 especially in Canada" The Divis!. on, therefore9 is now preparing a publication on the.

principles of modular co=ordination using the 4-inch module and another publication on modular drafting"

Conclusion

Last year in Canada after many years of inactivity, action in the field of modular ｣ｯｾｯｲ､ｩｮ｡ｴｩｯｮ began on three

different fronts" The NoCoPoAo decided to take steps for estab-lishing the dimensions of modular concrete units, the Ontario Association of Architects began considering .a uniform brick size, and the Division of Building Research began modular researcho

"

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The meetings held w+th manufacturers disclosed that the building industry looked to t he architect as the leader in this program which embraces the whole industryo During the post=war years however g architects in praoticep as well as in the building industryg have been too busy to consider a change in routine o The slaokening of paoe over the last year9 however9 has now given the industry time to think abou't the futurep and on all sides there is evIdence that modular co-ordination will play an important parto

If the architect is to assume his proper responsibili-ties in modular co-ordination he must be fully informeda The

groundwork for teaching modular to architects in Ontario' has been laid and this coming year should see the educa'tional program in

ｾｵｬＱ swing o Enthusiasm 1s spreading from Ontario to the Maritimes where both clay and concrete modular masonry units are likely to be available soon, thus making possible the beginning of modular building in Canada o Other provincial architectural associations have also shown Ｑｮｴ･ｲ･ｳｴｾ and it is hoped that they to09 will

consider tqe extension of modular o=ordination as t heir profes-sional responsibility.

Although Canada is a vast country9 many of the large

ｭ｡ｮｾ｡｣ｴｵｲ･ｲｳ of building products and about three-quarters of

the ｡ｲ｣ｨｩｴ･｣ｴｳｾ are located geographically within a small area, and therefore much of the building industry can, and iS9 being

readily brought together on modular co=ordinationo Nowhere in the work on modular co=ordinatlon has there been any evidence of discouragementp impracticability or lack of co=operationo