Carl Koch (architect)

Albert Carl Koch
Born 11 May 1912
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Died 03 July 1998
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Nationality USA
Occupation Architect
Practice Carl Koch & Associates
Buildings Techbuilt System

Carl Koch ( May 11, 1912– 3 July 3, 1998) was a noted American architect. He was most associated with the design of prefabricated homes and development of the Techcrete building system.

Education

He was born Albert Carl Koch in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was educated at Harvard College and received his Master of Architecture degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He completed his studies in 1937. The time he spent at Harvard overlapped with arrival of Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus in Germany.[1]

Career

After completing his education, he moved to Sweden where he worked for Sven Markelius for six months.[2] There he blended what he had learned in his formal education with clean Scandinavian design. These influences were evident in his work, especially the Techbuilt homes.

Work

Koch believed that the American lifestyle would be best served by a housing system which could be easily assembled, disassembled and reconfigured. This passion led him to pioneer prefabrication technologies. His Techbuilt series of homes was designed to be built with prefabricated panels for the walls, floor and roof.[3]

Buildings

His prime legacy is the Techbuilt system of home construction. In the Techbuilt house, the post and beam system (which makes interior walls non-loadbearing) combined with a variety of modular exterior wall panels (in 4' and 8' widths) permits the client to easily customize the design.

Projects

  • Snake Hill, Massachusetts group of eight houses (1941) [4]
  • Acorn House (1948)
  • Staff housing for the US Embassy, Belgrade (1956)
  • The Techcrete Academy Homes (1962)
  • Eliot House, Mount Holyoke College (1962)
  • Spruce Hill Road, Weston, Massachusetts (1956)

Legacy

Carl Koch is known for his successful early designs for prefabricated housing. He created the Techbuilt System of home construction. Progressive Architecture magazine gave him the unofficial title "The Grandfather of Prefab" in 1994.[5] In total, over 3,000 Techbuilt homes were sold.[1] He outlined his thoughts and experiences on prefabrication in a book which he wrote with Andy Lewis entitled At Home With Tomorrow (NYC: Rinehart Rinehart and Company, Inc., 1958.)[6]

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 "Carl Koch". National Trust for Historic Preservation. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
  2. ↑ McCallum, Ian (1959), Architecture U. S. A., New York: Reinhold Pub. Corp., pp. 170–174
  3. ↑ Ford, Katherine (1955), Designs for living; 175 examples of quality home interiors., New York: Reinhold Pub. Corp., pp. 22–23
  4. ↑ Gutheim, Frederick (1957), One hundred years of architecture in America, 1857–1957, celebrating the centennial of the American Institute of Architects., New York: Reinhold Pub. Corp.
  5. ↑ Long, Tom (1998). "Carl Koch, 86; noted architect". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
  6. ↑ Modernism 101: Architecture Archived 2009-07-05 at the Wayback Machine.
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