A workforce of scholars and researchers from Barcelona’s Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia have designed and constructed a cabin for self-isolation, utilizing wooden harvested from inside one kilometer of its website.
The challenge was developed as a part of the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia‘s (IAAC) Grasp in Superior Ecological Buildings and Biocities (MAEBB) programme, which promotes a hands-on method to ecological architectural design.
The Voxel (an abbreviation of volumetric pixel) quarantine cabin is situated near the IAAC’s Valldaura Labs campus within the Collserola pure park.
The 12-square-metre construction was designed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic as an area the place a single occupant can self-isolate for as much as 14 days.
The challenge workforce, led by course administrators Daniel Ibáñez and Vicente Guallart, designed and constructed the Voxel throughout the MAEBB 2019-2020 grasp’s diploma. This meant working beneath Covid-19 restrictions all through the challenge’s period.
The cabin was inbuilt simply 5 months utilizing timber harvested no additional than one kilometre from the development web site. This “zero kilometre” method prompted an intensive exploration of find out how to optimise regionally out there supplies.
“The challenge researches the ecological transformation of wooden as a structural, thermal, and constructive materials from sustainable forest administration due to its capability to retailer CO2 in buildings,” the designers defined.
The Voxel incorporates a cross-laminated timber (CLT) construction produced from Aleppo Pine that was milled, dried, processed and pressed on web site on the Valldaura campus workshops.
The construction makes use of wooden from 40 pine bushes harvested as a part of a sustainable forest administration plan that goals to encourage the expansion of small bushes and enhance biodiversity.
The wooden was reduce into boards and dried earlier than being processed into skinny sheets – known as lamellas – and pressed to kind the structural CLT panels.
“In a feat of obsessive dedication to locality and understanding the fabric flows of structure, each lamella of each panel was tracked and traced, guaranteeing that each single wood ingredient of the home will be precisely traced again to the purpose the place the tree it got here from as soon as stood,” the challenge workforce mentioned.
The panels are assembled to kind a 3.6 x 3.6-metre dice utilizing metal-free lap joints and wood dowels to minimise the necessity for carbon-intensive supplies like nails, screws or different fixings.
The construction is wrapped in a layer of cork insulation and offcuts from the CLT manufacturing course of are used to create the slatted rain display screen panels utilized to the facades. The angles and positions of the slats are parametrically configured to optimise their performance.
Among the panels are positioned away from the constructing’s elevations to accommodate utilities reminiscent of water tanks and an outside bathe. The wooden was charred utilizing the Japanese shou sugi ban method to supply pure weatherproofing.
A sequence of rooftop planters have been fabricated with advanced joints that have been developed utilizing pc software program to take away the necessity for screws or glue. These backyard containers additionally funnel rainwater into a group tank to be used within the constructing.
The cross-laminated timber construction is left uncovered contained in the cabin. The identical materials is used to create all the furnishings, which features a platform mattress and freestanding desk.
The Voxel additionally comprises a bathroom and a kitchenette with a sink. A self-contained biogas system treats waste from the bathroom to generate gasoline for cooking and heating, in addition to producing sanitary fertiliser.
Three photo voltaic panels on the roof cost a battery that gives energy for lighting and the units utilized by the cabin’s lone occupant.
The Voxel challenge typifies the IAAC’s deal with progressive and ecological building, in addition to its dedication to studying by way of making.
Earlier tasks developed on the institute embrace a proposal for parasitic housing suspended from Hong Kong residence buildings, and a robotic 3D printer that creates architectural buildings from sand or soil.
Pictures is by Adrià Goula.