Built-in, exposed or concealed comfort services. Attempts (incomplete) to industrialise collective housing after 1945

Simultaneous consideration of active devices – especially mechanical heating and ventilation – and passive devices – including insulation and waterproofing of building envelopes – was one of the most notable aspects of studies of the management of physiological comfort in the interiors of buildings in the post-war period. In particular, the idea of industrialising construction, which occupied an important place in the building industry after 1945, entailed a paradigm shift in the conception of the architectural project itself. Against the backdrop of the idea of ‘technical coordination’, the integration of building services became fully part of the phases of the process of planning construction that was intended to become “scientific”. Because of the synergy sought between the networks of utilities and the constructional elements, innovation in terms of comfort services became a source of experimentation. Whatever systems were chosen – radiant, convection, or mixed – the constraints of integration thus encouraged new solutions, to be disseminated if possible on the building market on a larger industrial scale. Among the few far-sighted positions – ranging from the ‘integral design’ of the Ulm School to Giuseppe Ciribini's ‘Componenting’, and Fritz Haller’s experiments – as well as a more timid standard practice (which remained faithful to radiators fed by exposed tubes!), this paper proposes to reconstruct this crucial theme, which was deeply involved in the upheaval in the building sector which was dreamed of after 1945.