Urban Location

To achieve a sustainable urban development it is necessary to promote a dense and compact urban fabric. The main problem for the development of single-family homes is the scarcity and high cost of land. Therefore, it is essential to reduce land use through compact constructions. The proposal is committed to the consolidation and regeneration of the existing urban fabric, achieving more appropriate urban density.

This way, it takes advantage of the proximity to urban centers with its opportunities, achieving a better quality of life. 

Modular

Our proposal is a prototype systematized in modules, with the possibility of internal growth. This means, it understands the need for growth by providing the structural module to contain it. The layout allows a high degree of adaptability and occupies a small area, enabling both its capacity to adapt to different lots and its wide range of possible units. A housing proposal is presented, but it is actually a reflection about a modular system that allows the development of economic housing with spatial and material quality, contributing to sustainable urban development.

Flexible Program

The module of 3.90m has a perimeter of services, releasing a continuous space towards the interior. That way, the facade becomes “thick'' and acts as a functional and climatic filter between interior space and the city. The different spaces do not have a strong spatial hierarchy; they become an open and flexible system that allows continuity and freedom of use. In this way the project understands the variable nature of the required program: families change, grow and add new members, and have new spatial needs.

Measures taken to reduce CO2 emissions

• Passive systems: Generation of its own ecosystem. The house breathes, separates from the ground and the open spaces are arranged to allow cross ventilation. Also, it uses the vegetation both on landscaped roofs and on side and upper skins.
• Active systems: Rainwater and gray water collection and reuse systems, solar collectors for hot water are also incorporated.
• Material: It is developed mostly in wood, a renewable natural resource, highly recyclable and that can be extracted with simple and low-cost processes, with low energy demand in the production, transportation, and assembly process.
• Urban location: A housing prototype must contribute to a more sustainable urban development. Urban density reduces the need for the use of the private vehicle and other infrastructures.