ABSTRACT
When factory manufacture was still in its infancy in the early nineteenth century there were passionate debates on whether working with machinery under regimented conditions was beneficial or detrimental to the welfare of the working classes, with many discussion focuses on the effect of machinery on skilled artisanal labour. The Society argued that modular coordination would reduce the wastage involved in traditional building, as modular structures would be built to order and fitted together on site. Tatton Brown, reprising the sentiments of Ruskin, Morris and Lethaby, considered labour an integral part of building and in embracing industrialisation represented many architects, working mainly in local authority and government departments, who pioneered CLASP and similar light and dry systems. The Modular Society built two further structures. Although prolific in its campaigning, educational initiatives, publications and public lectures, the Modular Society never addressed the fundamental relationships between labour, skill, tolerances and component building.
