Modular Coordination as a Criterion of Order in the Modern Project: Case Study House N°16

Abstract

Modern architecture is considered one of the most important styles of the 20th century, in which one of the principles for approaching projects was based on modular configuration. This reflective article examines Case Study House No. 16, part of the Case Study House Program: The Complete CSH Program 1945–1966, designed by architect Craig Ellwood, one of the three most important architects of the modern movement, alongside Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright. The analysis focused on understanding the internal logic of the project's development by exploring the possibilities for spatial organization enabled by a dimensional and modular coordination system in the conception of architectural space. The modular coordination of Case Study House No. 16 is identified as a criterion that responds to modern postulates of economy, precision, rigor, and universality, a criterion that not only had a programmatic intention but was also part of the building's formal composition. The research has established analysis parameters such as functionality, structure, flooring, false ceilings, interior partitions, and enclosures, concluding that the most influential parameter is how the modulation of the structure configures both the construction systems and the architectural space. This study and analysis lead to the conclusion that a modular and dimensional coordination system, designed from the perspectives of materials, systems, and structure, allows us to understand and control the internal logic of a project's development, organize the architectural space, and give it formal value.

Keywords: modern postulates, design process, modular coordination, construction system, case study.