William E. Massie is the award-winning Architect-in-Residence and Head of the Architecture Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Recently, he showed up one of ten prefabricated houses which he designed: the American House 08.
Massie uses a drastically divergent practice from traditional architecture by computer-based fabrication technology for efficient, precise, and customized fabrication. Constructed entirely within the architect’s 12,000 square-foot studio just minutes away from the historic Saarinen-designed Cranbrook campus, American House 08 was designed, in part, at full scale.
By composing in real-time, Massie is able to negotiate between material and concept, relying on human reaction to the actual space and details. Utilizing computer-based fabrication technology for production, the house consists of a prefabricated steel frame, in-filled with manufactured structural panels all filtered through a process of digital fabrication.
The design of American House 08 is defined by two glass elevations, uniting the interior experience with the exterior landscape. The regularity of the box-like form is disrupted by a pair of volumetric anomalies and elliptical light tubes, stretching down to the floor, implying a shift in program.
