TM - All rights reserved 1970
Publishers Hall Syndicate
'Son, it's time we let you in on the political facts of life.'
Component building uses code
NEW YORK (UPI)—Complex local building codes and union practices often are cited as serious obstacles to housing progress based on sophisticated, high-speed building techniques.
Kenneth Naslund of Chicago an engineer-architect whose firm has developed one of these advanced new industrialized building systems, disagrees.
Naslund, president of Component Building Systems, Ltd., contends that building codes and union practices should present no real obstacle to the adoption of industrialized building methods. He feels "they are simply items on the list of problems to be solved, like the nature of the site, height of the building and number of apartments."
"A good—and truly industrialized—building system should be flexible enough to take the code and union work rule factors into account and develop a solution to accommodate them," he said.
It is generally agreed, if we are not to fall farther and farther behind in supplying the pent-up and increasing demand for housing, that building techniques must change. Traditional methods, building a house piece by piece on the site, are too slow, and there just are not enough workers for the rising demand.
The Department of Housing & Urban Development says 2.6 million housing units a year are needed just to stay even—and not even half that number are being built now.
It's high time, the experts argue, that we apply to housing the same resourcefulness and ingenuity that has produced the most sophisticated industrial technology in history. The logical solution, they say, is the application of housing of industrialized building techniques. While there are many variations, all have one principle in common: they attempt to minimize time-consuming on-site work by substituting sections or even entire units that have been built elsewhere.
Critics argue, however, that all of these efficiency systems are doomed to failure because of the variations in what is acceptable from one community to another and the alleged resistance of unions to any streamlining that might threaten jobs.
Nashlud, says: "Conventional building techniques must face the same restrictions. Whatever we can gain in the way of faster,
better or less costly construction in those areas which can benefit by industrialization, puts us that far ahead of conventional building."
His system
In his company's System III building method, Naslund explained, all interior and exterior panels, partitions, floor and ceiling systems, are built at off-site factories under precise quality-controlled conditions. The components then are assembled into a steel structure at the site, generally with simple hand tools and in about half the time as conventional construction.
By componentizing as much as possible of a building, he said, on-site time is cut, reducing interim financing costs and getting the building into income-producing use earlier.
It makes little difference, Naslund said, whether rigid electrical conduit or flexible conduit is permitted; or what kind of fireproofing is required, or what kind of construction tradesmen are responsible for specific jobs.
"Whatever the requirements they can be incorporated," he said. "We design components needed for a specific architectural plan, make them in factories, ship them to the site, and assemble them into a complete building. The finished
product looks no different from a conventionally built building, and offers many advantages such as low maintenance, accessibility for servicing of mechanical systems, and movability of interior partitions."
Of course, Naslund said, the more flexible a building code is and the more cooperative unions are, the more advantages there will be over conventional construction. "Already," he said, "we've seen more relaxed attitudes toward drywall, plastic plumbing, pre-wired fixtures. And we think even more permissiveness is in the offing as housing needs become more pressing."
Nasland sees in an industrialized system of building such as Component Buildings' panelized approach "a tool for the housing industry, not a threat."
"It will enable independent builders to expand their volume and remain competitive," he said.
Many fabricators already are in business and others will be able to expand into housing for the first time, as new markets are created. In a prototype project, in France for instance, he explained, interior partitions were manufactured by a maker of television cabinets.
Similarly, the demand for labor will be increased not diminished, he said.
BOOKS
THE MAN VERSUS THE STATE. by Herbert Spencer,
A REPORT TO THE COUNTY OF LANARK and A NEW VIEW OF SOCIETY, by Robert Owen, edited by V. A. C. Gatrell (Pelican, $1.65)—documents by the celebrated utopian reformer of early 19th Century, who envisioned a newer and better society through industrial change. Owen was one of the first to stress environment as a factor influencing character. This volume presents his basic philosophy.
A number of new paperbacks, bearing the Pelican and Penguin imprint, have appeared in the field of non-fiction, and deserve at least brief mention. Here they are:
THE SEARCH FOR PATTERN,
by W. W. Sawyer (Pelican, $1.95)
—An introduction to math-
matics, a volume designed to pres-
ent the essentials of "mathematical literacy" to the reader.
edited by Donald MacRae (Pelican, $1.95)—Some of the basic philosophy of the noted thinker of Social Darwinism, an exponent of sociology and evolution and arch-defender of the concept of laissez faire.
GREEK POLITICAL ORATORY, translated by A. N. W. Saunders (Penguin, $1.95) — A linking of great Greek orations to history and philosophy,, including the rise of Sophistry and the decline of the city state.
THE ANGRY ONES and SONS OF DARKNESS, SONS OF LIGHT, by John A. Williams (Pocket, 95 cents each)—Two by an able black novelist who has been hailed as one of the best writers in America. "Sons of Darkness" is set in the future, and deals with a black man whose moderate stance gives way to anger and frustration. "The Angry Ones" is similar in mood and theme.
Declaration supported
[Editor's Note: The following declaration was recently drafted by a group of University faculty members, and signed by 174 faculty members and 112 students. The second letter is the response of the University Senate Executive Committee.]
DECLARATION
A free university cannot long exist if it succumbs to the demands of zealots of any persuasion that activities of other members of the university, of which they disapprove, be banned from the campus.
The University belongs to all of its members. Its facilities must be available to all for their activities, controversial or otherwise, which do not interfere with the rights of others. Use of these facilities, therefore, must be assured to a campus organization which wishes to sponsor the appearance of an outside speaker of the radical left or right. By the same token, these facilities cannot properly be denied to a university department for use in connection with its program.
An appeal that a controversial event not be held because it will divide the university community is not persuasive. Controversy is the life of a free university. The liberal approach to diversity of views is mutual tolerance, not a false unanimity achieved by the silencing of one group by another. The demand that an event be cancelled under a threat of violence is intolerable.
We note that instead of accepting the cancellation of this year's ROTC review as a gesture intended to east tension, forestall violence here, and attest to our common dismay at the tragedy of violence at another university, the zealots proclaimed it as a "victory" and celebrated it forthwith by an act of violence of the very sort that the cancellation was intended to prevent.
We call on the Chancellor and the Senate Executive Committee to now state unequivocably that violence or forceful intimidation, from whatever quarter, will not be tolerated at this university, that the rights of all of its members to peaceable assembly will be protected and their infringement punished, and that the recent cancellation of the ROTC review will not become a precedent for the future cancellation of such reviews or of any other University event.
To the students and faculty of the University of Kansas;
Response
The University Senate Executive Committee welcomes the Declaration from numerous members of the Faculty and Student Body. The basic principles noted in the Declaration have been constantly in our minds as we have contended with explosively developing crises in the University. Those principles we have unanimously accepted without question or reservation, indeed, even without explicit consideration or expression.
A university cannot remain free if it succeeds to the demands of zealots, either those who threaten and clamor for immediate change to suit their own notions, or those who insist there must never be change at all. The university must resist all such arbitrary demands in order to preserve its essential freedom in an evolving society and developing world. The precious basic rights of all members of the university must be guarded, by any reasonable and honorable means—and such means include not only the stout and unwavering defense of principle but also the prudent and flexible modification of process.
We intend to do everything in our power to keep the University free, open, and committed to reason, a home for contemplative ripening scholarship, and an arena for the vigorous mature discussion and testing of new ideas and issues.
The University Senate Executive Committee
William J. Argersinger
Karon Baucom
Russell N. Bradt
William M. Lucas
Ross E. McKinney
John S. McNown
Bradley Smoot
Richard L. von Ende
Paul E. Wilson
THE SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
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The opinions expressed in the editorial columns are those of the editorial staff of the newspaper. Guest editorial views are not necessarily the same as those of the editor's. Any opinions expressed in the Summer Session Kansan and the University of Kansas Administration or the Kansas State Board of Regents.
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