There is an urgent need to rethink how we build our homes…
The last two years proved the importance of an adaptable home, one that has the capability to adjust to different lifestyles and changing routines. Homes of the future MUST be dynamic and versatile, towards a sustainable use of space. Sustainability is much more than using recycled materials and eco techniques, it is also an attitude, and can be reflected by the way we design our spaces. Having an open building, and allowing the adaptation to future needs, is living in a Sustainable Way!
One of the most urgent issues in contemporary urban architecture concerns constructing buildings with the inbuilt capacity to adapt over time to changing uses and preferences, with minimal conflit. Such buildings would be stable yet they would accommodate new technologies and also allow for changes in the organization of work, in the life-styles of building occupants, and in shape of households those occupants form. When buildings are constructed for both present requirements and future change, real estate decisions will begin to represent sustainable investment and sustainable architecture in the large sense. (2)
By designing a dynamic home, we allow adaptation through time and avoid the need for renovation and rebuilding space, hence avoid construction and materials waste. This key factor can change the durability of a home- homes can become suitable for a lifetime rather than for a specific phase of your life, adapting to the changing family structure.
The utopic house by CORKBRICK is an example of how we perceive future homes, and how CORKBRICK can contribute in this Sustainable Way of Living.
In this project the base elements were defined - facilities, kitchen, vertical and horizontal accesses, interior/exterior relation, materials and structure - and so the configuration and layout was left as an ‘open building’ to allow infinite possibilities and uses to the space.
By using CORKBRICK we get:
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A naturally regenerable raw material (cork)
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A recycled and recyclable product
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A DIY dynamic system
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Adaptable mount and dismount modular product
The utopic house by CORKBRICK represents 3 different scenarios:
1st scenario (A): Open Building - The base building is defined and all the base elements mentioned above.
2nd scenario (B): Growing Family Home - CORKBRICK is used to offer various spaces for a family to grow. It is proposed a transformation of the closet in the Master Bedroom into a nursing room, and the fun room is divided into 3 spaces, two toddler bedrooms and a smaller playing room.
3rd scenario (C): Mature Family Home - CORKBRICK adapts to this matured family as it offers bigger rooms for teenager kids and returns a closet space to the Master Bedroom.
Adaptable buildings are defined as “dynamic systems that carry the capacity to accommodate a set of evolving demands regarding space, function, and components”(Adaptable Futures, 2012). (1)
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Integration of strategies such as adaptation and flexibility in new building construction or renovation can “effectively reduce life cycle costs by allowing a timelier and less costly response to a dynamic environment, which adds costs measured in terms of money, time, and complexity”(Ford and Garvin, 2010, p. 54) (1)
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Ideally adaptable buildings are designed with an element of durability in them, flexibility of layout, which provides through-life adaptable possibilities to its users (1)
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Out of the many adaptable features, the results revealed “change of use”as the dominant trend within the buildings of the selected urban cluster. More than 60 per cent of buildings have changed their original use during their life cycle. Around 10 percent of them have changed their use frequently (every six year) during the last 20 years thereby signalling an increase in the rate of change. The positive contribution of adaptable buildings in achieving sustainability in terms of economic, social and environmental considerations, were confirmed through the analysis of semi-structured interviews. (1)