Ask the Central Office of Architecture what drew them to prefab and they respond with a manifesto-worthy reply: “We believe in the potential of economy as poetry, and in liberation through standardization.”

For the Dwell Home Design Invitational, COA designed a Los Angeles–inspired variable-prototype model (VPM), which deploys and integrates four levels of building-production technology: mass production, mass customization, prefabrication, and in situ construction. These key elements are separated clearly in order to define their production/assembly roles. The COA home would include a lightweight steel roof canopy constructed to form a 25-and-a-half-foot structural bay. Influenced by Le Corbusier’s concept of Le Modulor, the firm also proposes the use of interchangeable panel types—allowing for flexibility within the economies of standardization—and modular cabinetry for storage and structure. The foundation is post-tension concrete slab.

“Mass customization,” explain the architects, “has become more and more integrated with mass production, and the effects have made room for an intense optimism. [As a result of the Dwell Home], the gap between design and production might be narrowed and made increasingly collaborative.”