Insights Success The 10 Best Architecture Consultants in Nov 2017 | Page 24

Modern Architecture
Portable Structure:
The Modern Container of Architecture
T
echniques and technologies are always evolving
rapidly in the field of architecture. Architects have
to constantly educate themselves in order to keep up
with the field, which makes it both challenging and
exciting. Portable buildings known as yurts were used by
the wanderers of Central Asia centuries ago. Today modern
portable homes are designed so that they could be
transported by lorry from one place to another and can be
lifted and set down by a crane.
Portable buildings have been in use since humankind first
initiated to build, yet because of their transient nature, it is
only recently they have begun to perceive as architecture.
Familiar traditional building forms such as tents and yurt
utilize sophisticated constructional techniques and complex
habitation patterns that have not only retained their
relevance for thousand years but are also linked to some of
the most sophisticated building patterns of the present day.
The Portable architecture consists of structures that are
intended for easy erections on a site remote from their
manufacture. Some incorporate their transportation method
into their permanent structure and may be built on a chassis
or a hull.
Need of Portability in Today’s World
Portable buildings are generally reduced in sizes due to the
limitation in transport. Strategies can be made to build with
many alternative constructional systems that incorporate
panel, framed, tensile and pneumatic structural principals
sometimes in combination, to create an infinite variety of
built form. There is hardly a field of human activity that
portable buildings cannot support in some way - medicine,
education, housing, commerce, entertainment are few. The
portability of the building to be built has been the main
concern in the design selection rather than the speed of
deployment. The mobile element in these projects, the
design has not only been the driving force in the creation of
their form and image but also an important factor in the
operational success.
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Highly Educated Designers
A good designer approaches the task of creating permanent
or portable architecture with the same set of priorities,
balancing all the factors pertinent to the project. Portability
is just another factor like lighting, security or access
arrangements. Due to the possible circumstances of
erection, portable buildings are composed of generally
light- weighted materials. There is a characteristic that can
be traced from vernacular and traditional examples through
the latest computer-aided designs that are made in factories.
Portable architects use a much greater range of innovative
materials and constructional techniques than conventional
building projects. It is, therefore, at the forefront in the
exploitation of technology transfer opportunities in the
building industry.
Projects Serving People Through Portable Architecture
There are various projects such as Mobile Dwelling Units
that are successfully shipping containers which are a self-
contained home. Projects like this provide facilities such as
push-out kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and storage facilities.
These are designed to be located at any of the world's ports.
They are transported on container ships and slotted into a
specially made infra-structural frame at its destination.
These projects allow the traveler to have a home at every
port, a real dedicated and personal dwelling with the
continuity of their own possessions. Practical benefits are
relatively easy to understand once they are quantified.
Portable buildings have low environmental impacts; they
may be located in rural or urban situations with minimal
long-term effect. It can make use of a temporary identifiable
address that is of value to both the operator and the user.

Designers Know No Boundaries
For the designers who work in the field of portable
architecture, there are no boundaries in the sources of
inspiration between mobile and static design. These
| November 2017 |