Blog.
Now imagine that home being as little as 25 meters squared! Over the past decade, Tiny House living has been on the rise with affordability, efficiency, eco-friendliness, and minimalism being cited for the reasons of its popularity. In recent years, Tiny House Architecture has been rife with new and innovative sustainable solutions for small and off-grid living opportunities. However, 2020 has brought about an unexpected spatial dilemma which, combined with the ever-present issue of the climate crisis calls for a drastic modification to small scale architecture.
Recent Architecture competitions have bought these two current world issues of COVID-19 and the climate crisis to the forefront of design in the built environment. The aim of this post is to explore one tiny scale solution to these large-scale problems. Other examples can be seen following this link – https://tinyhouseblog.com/
A Tiny House proposal – The Ecosystem
(A top 50 entry for the Volume Zero international “Tiny House 2020” architecture competition submitted by Sofia Coviello & Dominik Niewiadomski)
The Macro System (Zero Carbon response)
The UK government is committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and to achieve this, it is believed that by 2025, 100 percent of new buildings must be designed to deliver net zero carbon. Net zero carbon needs to be considered in the context of whole life carbon which includes operational energy and embodied carbon.
The Eco System initiative offers an ecological and economical solution to creating affordable yet sustainable homes for both short- and long-term residents. The nomadic tiny house village acts as a systematic catalyst to provide the birth, evolution, and growth of a permanent zero carbon living environment. It does this by occupying a site for a period of time to generate an environment of renewable energy and food production, before moving on and allowing new, self-sustained zero-carbon homes to inhabit the site.
The Modular System (Spatial response)
During the pandemic, many people have struggled with having to stay at home or work from home. One of the main routes of the problem is that people are doing everything including, living, working and leisure within the same environment. The aim of this design is to allow for fully adaptable spaces where people are able to differentiate between these functions.
The design of this tiny house utilises generic housing components such as bedroom, bathroom, living and kitchen spaces which are formed within a 500mm grid, to allow for different iterations of the internal configuration. The bedroom and living spaces have dual functions as recreational or office spaces to cater to the personal clients needs.
The modularity of the design is intended to aid the mental well-being of the residents. It enables exclusive exterior aesthetics and the purposeful off-set design creates an external garden zone for the occupants, while the window compositions also offer panoramic views.
The Micro System (Off-grid response)
The structural design of the house addresses the “Leti Design Guide” for small scale housing. The wall, roof and floor structure is fabricated to adopt the necessary U-Values for net zero carbon construction.
Due to the off-grid, nomadic nature of the design, ground screw foundations were chosen as there is no digging or excavation required and they are also convenient for temporary design and can be easily extracted and moved for future use.
The south facing side of the building houses a modular hydroponic food production wall, which benefits the environment as well as the end user. Hydroponic systems can grow more plants in the same amount of space as soil-based systems as well as encourage water conservation as the water is recirculated.
The maintenance applications for this off-grid design have been considered through an integrated system, which originate from the environmental functions of the sun and the rain. The solar energy and rainwater collection facilities feed into the mechanics on the underside of the building to provide electricity, water, and waste solutions within the home.
Conclusion
The built world effects every day human life, and with the ever-changing environments that we find ourselves in today, Architects and designers are faced with an ever-present need to reimagine form and function. With an increasing desire for people to lead a more simple and environmentally friendly lifestyle, it is clear that small-scale architecture can leave a large positive impact on the world around us.
Would you consider living in a tiny off-grid home?
The Volume Zero Architecture competition for “Tiny House 2020” saw some very innovative and unique design proposals – you can view the top 50 entries to this competition at this link: https://competition.volzero.com/competitions/result/13
This blog was created by Sofia Coviello.
To take a look at the rest of the IMA team Click here
