Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Big Day!

Today was personally a really big day for me, Competition Submission day! All of my hard work through my last semester culminated today as I entered my project to the Sustainable Home Competition for Habitat for Humanity. Check er out!


My abstract:






FLEX House |





Sustainability is about changing trajectories and contesting the conventional way of living (Subasinghe, 2011). Compartmentalization of the conventional single family detached house is so overused in residential design today that society has become narrow minded about the amount of space they actually need to live. Contemporary lifestyles and seasonal remodeling are based on the principles of continuous discarding/storing of old furniture and buying new as replacements. The FLEX House provides a unique solution by addressing these two unsustainable practices and provides flexibility of spaces and an integration of furniture and spatial design. The basis of the design is using flexibility as a means of use and reuse of program from space to space.  Within a 24-Hour period the FLEX House will be free of all “dead”, unsustainable space.  The FLEX House has provided a minimal square footage home that doubles and triples its program and function through movable partitions. Occupants are able to pull beds, couches, tables, and benches out and slide them back so the spaces can double as bedrooms, living rooms, dining areas and recreational spaces. The FLEX House was designed with static areas including the bathrooms and kitchen, whereas all bedrooms, living and dining areas are flexible. The movable partitions enclose storage, murphy beds that fold down, and sofas and desks as a multi-functional unit.  With this system and layout the home will accommodate families of varying sizes and allow these family sizes to change easily with no change necessary to the design. The exterior of the FLEX House has movable screens that mimic the partitions in the interior.  These screens will help with reduced heating and cooling costs of the home throughout the year because of their ability to swing up and shade the southern façade of the home in the summer, then swing down and slide apart allowing sunlight to enter the home’s southern-facing windows. The home will be oriented to maximize the south-sun exposure, which will enhance our use of day-lighting through many windows that will also enrich air-flow in the home. This home also includes radiant-heat flooring, eco-friendly and rapidly renewable building materials and finishes, dual-flush toilets and low-flow shower heads. The FLEX House is replicable because it is able to be oriented on individual sites to gain as much day-lighting as possible. This home is a complete solution to a problem that, up to this point, has not been successfully addressed and resolved by other designs. The FLEX House challenges society to think about the necessary amount of square footage needed and presents them with a solution that delivers an innovative building solution. The FLEX House will help Habitat for Humanity to stay on the forefront of residential design and construction while promoting sustainable ways of living. 




My presentation boards: