A large-panel-system building is a building constructed of large, prefabricated concrete slabs (slab construction). Such buildings are often found in housing developments. Although large-panel-system buildings are often considered to be typical of Eastern Bloc countries in the second half of the 20th century, this prefabricated construction method was also used extensively in Western Europe and elsewhere, particularly in public housing (see tower block). This construction method, known as Plattenbau in German, involves assembling buildings from story-high precast concrete elements that are manufactured in a factory and then transported to the construction site for assembly. It emerged from efforts to develop serial and industrialized housing construction, evolving through techniques such as block construction, large-block construction, concrete strip construction, and cast-in-place concrete panels from the early 20th century onward. For large-panel construction to be effective, it requires typification, standardization, and the capability for industrialized production, transportation, and assembly of the heavy elements. Due to evolving political and technological conditions, this method became widespread across Europe after World War II. While large-panel buildings in Western Europe were primarily used for social housing projects, they became the dominant construction method for nearly all purposes in socialist Europe from the early 1960s onward. However, economic constraints in Eastern European planned economies limited the full realization of the system's increasing flexibility and complexity.
History
Early history In the mid-19th century, a boom in prefabrication began with the export of preassembled houses made of wood and iron to British colonies. This trend ended around 1860 with the gold rush, after which manufacturers shifted their focus back to the domestic market. However, prefabrication only had a chance of success if it could compete with traditional masonry construction. This led to the spread of cast concrete in England and France. The artificial stone company Lippmann, Schneckenburger & Cie. from Batignolles, near Paris, was the first to produce hollow concrete panels that could be assembled into houses. However, these panels had to be small to remain transportable, which limited their size. In 1875, W. H. Lascalles experimented with a block construction system using reinforced elements measuring 61 × 91 × 4 cm. The English architect Richard Norman Shaw was commissioned to design cottages in a rustic style for this system. Lascalles and Shaw were awarded a gold medal at the 1878 Paris World Exhibition for their houses, which were inspired by the Queen Anne style architecture. The first known houses constructed from large prefabricated concrete panels were built by John Alexander Brodie, an employee of the city of Liverpool. Between 1903 and 1905, he oversaw the construction of worker housing on Eldon Street for the Housing Council. This project was experimental, with work processes being documented photographically. Brodie's goal was to create housing quickly and affordably. The buildings were constructed partly using in-situ concrete and masonry, while others featured story-high prefabricated panels with window openings. Assembly involved erecting a house-sized scaffold. Some wall panels were even cast on the completed floors and then tilted into position. In 1905, Brodie presented another prefabricated house at the Cheap Cottages Exhibition in Letchworth, England.
The Atterbury System In 1902, the architect Grosvenor Atterbury developed a panel construction system, inspired by Thomas Edison's cast concrete houses. He first applied this method in 1906 in a privately funded experimental project in Philadelphia. By 1910, he was able to construct one-and-a-half-story buildings, and by 1918, he successfully built two-story structures as part of the third phase of the Forest Hills Gardens garden city project in Queens, New York. The panels were story-high and had no window openings, as these would have made them too heavy. Technically, the system was closer to strip construction. Additionally, the basement was built with masonry, while the ground floor was constructed using in-situ concrete. Atterbury's construction principle became known as the Atterbury System and gained recognition in Europe. In the Netherlands, it was patented as the "System Bron" and was first used in 1921 for the construction of Betondorp ("Concrete Village"), a residential district in Amsterdam-Oost. The two-story row houses were designed by Dutch architect Dick Greiner and were part of a broader series of experimental concrete housing projects.
Post-WWI period Prefabrication was pioneered in the Netherlands following World War I, based on construction methods developed in the United States. The first German use of large-panel-system building construction is what is now known as the Splanemann-Siedlung in Berlin's Lichtenberg district, constructed in 1926–1930. These two- and three-storey apartment houses were assembled of locally cast slabs, inspired by the Dutch Betondorp in Watergraafsmeer, a suburb of Amsterdam.
Post-war period
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