Competition entry for 100 years of Bauhaus - The small house of universal design award.
Project Description:
The environment set for the project, is in a future with extreme temperature changes. Due to climate change, the pictured climate has hot and dry summers and cold winters but as time goes by the environment turns into a desert with hot days and cold nights. It is too harsh for farming and greenery outside, therefore the growing areas are moved inside the living space.
The shelter/roof is a vault assembled with modular boxes. They are filled with a high thermal mass in assorted parts which allows the structure to be self-load bearing. The highest mass is put in the lower parts of the vault, making the forces that are projected on the structure to be more vertical than horizontal. The vault is lowered into the ground and the high mass of surrounding earth is compressing the vault to keep its shape.
The higher parts of the vault has boxes with translucent plates which make the boxes lightweight. The translucent parts of the structure allows the space underneath to become a greenhouse.
To allow for air flow through the building, the two short sides of the building volume have vertical windows that can open, creating a wind tunnel through the space.
To fully maximise the farming possibilities within the greenhouse, there are aquaculture tanks underneath the floor in some of the growing areas.