MODULAR RECYCLED GREEN HOMES
Whole industrialized assembly and construction system designed to reduce energy consumption, CO2 emissions and construction costs
CLIENT: Contenedomus SLLP
PATENT: Domínguez Shánchez I. y de Diego Caro M.
ZEROCEM: Sustainable Strategies and Implementation Project prototipo
TYPE: Housing research
SIZE: 68.00 sqm (prototype)
STATE: Complete
YEAR: 2013
SITE: Sevilla, España
Architecture standarization
From the XX century appear efforts to introduce standardization to increase work quality and safety within building construction.
According to Hanes Meyer: “The new house as prefabricated construction is an industrial product and in consequence is the work of specialists: economists, statisticians, hygienists, climatologists, industrial engineers, experts in standardization, heat technicians … but what about the Architect?
It was an Artist and he has become an organizational specialist! The new house is a social work that frees construction industry from seasonal unemployment. “
Later, in 1957, Jean Prouvé shows with Maison Tropical that a dwelling can already be conceived as a complete mechanized process of assembling different parts. The systems for the enclosure are clearly designed to favor ventilation in tropical climate, and constitute an example of adaptation to the environment.
Nowadays this has become something usual for some architects thanks to the wide variety of catalogs about mechanized construction systems, which save costs and terms, improving quality.
The last step in the standarization process has been the appearance of low cost prefabricated housing but with unattractive designs due to its unadaptability to customer’s tastes. It is precisely these designs that give a connotation of poor quality to the standarization, as it happended during the monotonous 60s and 70s residential expansion in Europe.
So, could it be combined standardization quality and free design flexibility?
Units standarization
ConteneDomus intended to go beyond a simple modular home. It designed prefabricated units like rooms that can be assembled into infinitive ways according to customers requirements. Also many options could be choosen to define cladding materials, to get wided range of freedom but inside a fully standarised system.
Whole system includes 6 different modules: kitchen, living room, bedroom, bedroom + bathroom, corridor+ bathroom, kitchen and stairs well (needed for high stacking)
In order to facilitate units free combination, each of the modules inclluded a facilities ring system that can provide or collect energy and water through an interconnection kit.
Sustainable strategies deployment
Recycling as a way to reduce CO2 emissions
Recycled marine containers were chosen as structural module becuase several reasons:
- They already provide an standard design element which can be easily carried on any kind of shipping.
- It was an abudant material due to economic crisis.
- It produces a reduction in CO2 emissions during manufacturing process.
According to previous research, an standard concrete structure dwelling contains 400 kg of concrete per sqm, and every concrete kg manufactured produces 40 CO2 kg, furthermore 2800kg of CO2 were saved during prototype construction thanks to structural recylcling.
But marine containers are not only used as structural elements but also as fabrics indoor layer which increase significativevly the total amout of CO2 captured.
