From the Module
to the House
Our project starts with the idea of a modularity that allows a composition, an open and always flexible combination. We developed an ideal volume of 3 x 3 x 3 meters, filled by open or closed spaces and arranged accordingly to the necessities of the house.
Following this principle we found in cold-formed steel a suitable solution for the project for several reasons, including ease of construction, low cost, precision, sustainability and the flexibility CFS provides through additions and modifications to the plan. Our system consists indeed of a perimeter wall, to which the interior walls are attached. We developed a system that is composed of a limited number of wall types (9), thus allowing infinite possibilities in plan arrangement, yet ensuring the standardization in details and openings to control costs. In particular we present here four variations on this theme.
In the beginning the 15 x 30 meters plot is divided by the 4 primary transverse walls enclosing the main spaces of the house: entrance and garages, service areas, living rooms, bedroom blocks, are laid. In a second step, load-bearing walls of three and two modules length are attached, supporting the layout of the beams. Finally one-module non-load-bearing walls complete the partitions.
The construction site is simple and clean: a bending machine can be installed on site and only the steel coils have to be brought in by truck, minimising the space needed for transportation. This construction system does not even need a resource as precious as water: each element is dry-assembled, starting from the foundation and ending with the roof. The cladding materials are natural, i.e., raw earth panels on the outside and fabrics and tiles on the inside, entirely reusable, which can be easily disassembled or modified in case of extensions or changes of use by the owners.
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4
Atlas of elements, made of only 2 types of beams and 9 types of walls of 5, 3, 2 and 1 unit of 3 meters. Doors penings can always be converted into window openings by simply adding a CFS infill.
A climate strategy
The project demonstrates that high-tech climatic features can coexist with low-tech practices by studying local climatic conditions. The large surface area on the roof allowed us to develop a kit designed to integrate the basic functions of the house, keeping it liveable if it is isolated for a certain period of time or simply ensuring an ideal temperature without the use of electricity. The kit is room-related and can therefore be composed according to one's needs. The roof structure itself is ventilated thanks to external openings, which echo traditional elements.
The house can be subjected to both high-tech ventilation (two split vrv units on the roof) and natural ventilation provided by the solar chimneys in the rooms and the wind towers in the living room. The air, cooled by the shade and vegetation of the courtyards, enters the house and after having cooled the various rooms exits from above.
Each solar chimney has an integrated moisture condenser with its own small cistern, thus exploiting the high concentration of moisture in the air in the coastal regions and compensating for the lack of moisture in the more internal areas.
In the event of a water emergency, these devices, which exploit the evaporation of a salt water mixture, collecting up to 18 litres of purified water per day, can supply water to the various functions (bathrooms and kitchen) simply using gravity. The electricity itself is supplied by the solar panels on the roof with an extension of 60m2 (1 kw/6 m2) and is stored in batteries in the technical room, where there is also a heat pump with boiler and a small safety fuel generator.
The System
The project moves a critique to the Dubai Building Code rule that imposes a minimum distance of 3 meters from the dividing wall. Indeed, this rule inevitably leads to the development of a small number of variants that are clearly recognisable from the outside, treating as well the garden a remnant of the house.
By instead extending the house to the wall and integrating the latter into the house itself, the garden becomes part of the design.
In this way, the house occupies only one floor, with reduced construction costs, regaining through its height the privacy guaranteed by the 3-metre distance. The courtyards become part of that series of elements that represent revisited traditional aspects within the home, such as the very materiality of the interior between fabrics and tile flooring.
These drawings represent only four of the potential variations achievable with this modularity (an ideal grid of 3 x 3 meters in a 15 x 30 meters plot) within this programme, as we are in fact proposing a system, which can be modified according to the needs of the families. It is a combination of modules. In all the variations, each space has a courtyard that offers light and view, thus creating more intimacy and a certain separation between the different areas.
In a house of the future this modularity and the use of cold formed steel allow the reinterpretation of many spaces: an unused garage can become a local shop, a workshop, a space for working, the driver's room can become a smaller boutique, a storage, a tea room.
Option 01 groundfloor, extension possible on the upper floor
Option 02 groundfloor, extension possible on the upper floor
Option 03 groundfloor, extension possible on the upper floor
Option 04 groundfloor, extension possible on the upper floor
"House is a city and city is a house."
Aldo van Eyck, Piet Blom
Starting from the single housing unit, declined in 4 different variants, we have woven an urban fabric that avoids the infinite and alienating repetition of a single typology and allows the dwellings to relate to the context, creating a series of public spaces aiming at decentralising common life and multiplying meeting places.
In the urban programme presented, each house can in fact donate two courtyard modules to the public space, expanding it with a series of niches for socialising. In addition, each house is encouraged to use at least one garage space as a shop, workshop, work space, creating opportunities for the neighbourhood and individual families. The communal spaces thus become dotted with a series of street furniture depending on the situation, covered or open based on the season.
The blocks consist of eight residential units and allow for the differentiation of continuous streets, which are the main driveways, and discontinuous streets, divided into secondary driveways and pedestrian-only streets, which are safe spaces for children and young people.
On a larger scale, this urban system, integrated with buildings of public character for the neighbourhood (in blue: schools, clinics, district centres, libraries), presents itself as a modern madina, made up of more or less wide streets, open spaces and squares. It is not the solid that occupies the void, but the void that makes space in the solid, more or less hidden depending on the degree of privacy.