Practicing ArchitectureAwards

2010 AIA Housing Award Recipient

Category 2: One and Two-Family Production Homes

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Notes of Interest

This project is a five-story dwelling that demonstrates a holistic approach to off-site fabrication. It is first and foremost a matrix for holding materials together to create an inhabitable enclosure. The aluminum frame provides the structure and the means to attach factory-made elements like floors, ceilings, stairs, bathrooms, and mechanical rooms. When it is no longer needed, the house can be disassembled. Then the materials can be moved, reused or recycled, helping to offset the millions of tons of construction and demolition debris generated in the United States each year.

The outer walls of the building are made from transparent PET – the material used in soda bottles – and are laminated with thin-film photovoltaic cells. The transparency allows sunlight to filter through the house, while solar power is harnessed through PV cells, enabling the house to function off-grid.

The house is not site-specific, and can therefore adapt to a range of climatic factors, solar orientations, slopes and adjacencies. Homeowners can alter the array of materials and floor plans as desired and regardless of the changes, the method of fabrication remains the same.

The house was fabricated off-site in a factory, where it was segregated into “chunks” which were put together simultaneously. After delivery to the site, the house was erected on-site in just sixteen days.