mincasa - a minimal blog for minimal houses » extendables

markies

admincasa — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:04:46 +0000

Credits: Eduard Böhtlingk - http://www.bohtlingk.nl/ – Photos: Roos Aldershoff

The Markies is not an ordinary caravan, but it can serve as one because it meets all the B-road transport requirements. It was an entry for a temporary dwelling competition and was conceived as a mobile holiday home.

When it is on the road, the Markies measures 2.20 m by 4.40 m. Once it arrives at its destination, its floor space can be increased threefold in a matter of seconds. Both side walls can be folded down electronically and the resulting area can then be covered automatically via the concertina-like awnings, which can be lowered to exactly the height desired.

The living space is thus divided into three zones: in the middle there is the kitchen, dining area and wc, on one side the living room with its transparent dome – which doubles as a terrace in good weather when the awning is raised – and on the other the bedroom, which can be split into smaller units and is covered by an opaque awning. The space inside has a flexible layout and includes all the essential facilities: fitted cupboards, benches, up to four beds, a refrigerator, a cooker and a shower/toilet.

Architect: Eduard Böhtlingk, Maasland, Netherlands
Size: 2.20 x 4.40 x 2.90 m, unfolded 6.60 x 4.40 x 2.90 m
Design: 1986 – Completion: 1995
The Markies was awarded the Public’s Choice Dutch Design Prize 1996
Since 2002 the Markies is part of the traveling exhibition “Living in Motion” by Vitra.

Böhtlingk architectuur, Maasland, Netherlands
http://www.bohtlingk.nl/
photos by Roos Aldershoff, Amsterdam
http://www.roosaldershoff.nl/

kesä kontti

admincasa — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:50:03 +0000

Credits: Markku Hedman, Professor, Architect SAFA – http://www.a-mh.fi/

Summer-Container is a movable timber-framed holiday cabin, operating on the matchbox principle. The purpose of the project was to study temporary dwelling, the relationship of building with nature and adaptability and varied use of a small leisure home. The project has also studied the uses of domestic lumber and plywood products and glued structural joints.

Summer-Container is a small building with an ephemeral and unsettled spirit. It reflects contemporary social, environmental and cultural reality and it meets the needs of a present-day individual inhabitant. In addition this project is utilised to examine the characteristics of sustainable development in housing design and construction. At the same time Summer-Container is deeply rooted into the history of Finnish architecture. It is a reinterpretation of a conventional Finnish holiday cabin. It makes use of materials typically utilized in industry and transforms them into a restful summer-home. It also creates a variable structure, which is able to accommodate itself into a traditional Finnish countryside or forest.

During storage and transportation, Summer-Container forms a tightly-shut wooden cube. It can be moved to its intended site, for example, on a trailer towed by a car or on a sled pulled by a snowmobile. Before use, shutters over the windows and door are opened and the living accommodation inside the cube is pushed out. The solid wooden cube is transformed into a colorful holiday cabin for two, with through-views and a varied appearance. It can be used as a base on an island for fishing trips, as a site cabin for foresters or as a young couple’s first year-round holiday home.

Summer-Container contains a kitchen area, a work-table, a convertible living / sleeping section and storage space. It can be outfitted for example with a kerosene-fuelled cooker, oven and heater, and also with a water container and a sink. The electricity required by the house is produced with solar panels or a wind-driven generator. All facades, including the roof as well as inner walls and ceiling are different kind of plywood boards, which are coated with phenolic resin laminate or film. These boards are more typically used as flooring panel in transport vehicles, industrial floors, and work platforms or for concrete formwork. A 50-70 mm thick board of polystyrene is used as insulation between the inner and outer boards of plywood. The insulation boards are glued to outer and inner plywood boards to create a solid panel. These prefabricated panels are then attached to the wooden frame. Selected colors reflect the colors of Finnish forests during different seasons of a year.

Project Title: Kesä Kontti / Summer-Container
Year Established: June 2000
Location: Movable / no fixed location, originally presented at the annual Finnish Summer-housing Exhibition in Tuusula, Finland
Floor Area Closed 4,5 / opened for use 8,0 sqm
Architect: Markku Hedman
Architectural Firm: Architects M.H. Coop.

Quellen/Copyright:
Text and Images by courtesy of Markku Hedman, Professor, Architect SAFA
http://www.a-mh.fi/

drop house

admincasa — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:11:53 +0000

Credits: http://www.drophouse.fr/

Bei dem Projekt Drophouse von D3 Architeken wird die Idee nicht bezweifelt, dass man in Zukunft selbstverständlich samt seinem Haus umzieht. Mit einem Gebäudekonzept, bei dem sich ein Grundmodul nach Bedarf vergrößern und verkleinern lässt, sind die Architekten Preisträger bei einem 2005 von Algeco ausgelobten Wettbewerb “Modulare Architektur” geworden.

Die Grundeinheit, eine Art Hauptaufenthaltsraum, wird durch ausziehbare Elemente satellitenähnlich räumlich erweitert; gleichzeitig befinden sich in diesen “Anbauten” auch die weiteren Funktionen:Küche, Bad, Eingangsbereich und zwei Schlafzimmer. Das Gebäude lässt sich bei längerer Abwesenheit zum Schutz gegen Beschädigungen schließen, erreicht somit aber auch eine transportable Größe, kann also mit einem LKW transportiert werden.

Ein Stahlrahmen-Gerüst ist Träger für die Hülle bestehend aus einer geschlossenen Holzverkleidung auf Metall-Sandwich-Panelen mit 8cm Dämmung (Steinwolle). Die Funktionselemente sind Holzkonstruktionen mit doppelter Isolierverglasung in
Aluminiumrahmen.

Bei diesem Prototypen des Projektes Drophouse wurde auf jeden Fall bewiesen, dass die modulare Bauweise in Einklang stehen kann mit räumlicher Qualität, Komfort und einer starken Identität.

D3 Architectes, Paris,
Antoine Cordier, Olivier Charles, Jaques Gelez and Armel Neouze
Drop House, 48 qm

Quelle/Copyright:
with permission of D3 Architectes – http://d3architectes.fr/

dragspelhuset

admincasa — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:01:37 +0000

Credits: http://www.24h-architecture.com/ and Christian Richters (Photos)

Extension to house on Övre Gla, Sweden

This house is an extension is to an original cabin dating from the late 1800’s, located on the shore of the lake Övre Gla in the nature reserve Glaskogen in Sweden. According to Swedish building regulations it is not allowed to build along the lake shore, but an exception is made if it is an extension to an existing building. Although a maximum floor area is allowed in that case. A second priority from the building regulations is its proximity to the border of the estate. In this case the extraordinary location along a stream, this forms part of the site boundary. The building should stay 4 meters clear of the site boundary.

To use the maximum of possibilities given by the building regulations 24H made an extension to the cabin that can evolve, the building can literally adjust itself to its environment depending on weather conditions, season or the number of occupants. The extension unfurls like a butterfly; during the winter it’s a cocoon, compact with a double skin against the cold. During the summer the building can change its form or, like a butterfly, unfold its wings for extra shelter during rainy days. The windows of the cabin’s head can open wide and on the cantilever of the moving part one can sit above the meandering stream, listening to the murmur of the stream. Returning south in the winter, the head back of the cabin is pulled in, and the cabin is, once again, no bigger than is allowed. When the space is at its biggest, the senses are aroused to the max: living above the water of the stream.

The organic shape of the house blends naturally into the setting of the rough forest. Since the building is only used for 4-6 weeks per year on such a beautiful and unspoiled location, it was important not to make a building that was able to disappear in its surrounding, without having to hide the house. By using red cedar wood that greys naturally into the colour of the surrounding rocks this was achieved. Seen from the lakeside the windows are hidden in the skin of the building, therefore no reference of a house is visible when the house stands alone in the forest. During the years to come moss might grow on the wooden roof as if it is a big granite rock.

Traditional roofing materials (called ‘stickor’), common in Sweden many years ago, were used in a contemporary way. The red cedar shingles that form the lizard-like skin of the cabin have been imported from Canada.
This might sound odd in a land where trees stretch out as far as the eye can see, but the local timber is soft and needs to be repainted pretty much every year to keep it in good condition. Whether lashed by rain or covered in snow, the cedar skin of the cabin will emerge resplendent each summer. In due time, the wood of the cabins skin will have a grey appearance fitting itself smoothly in the rough rocky forest landscape. The amorphous structure with the hornlike chimney and the undulating lines of cedar shingle skin lends the building a reptilian appearance.

Closely following the biomorphic curves of the rib cage, the interior walls are finished with pine lattice. The walls of the retractable extension are covered in reindeer hides, turning the living area into a sensuous fur-lined cave. Inspired by the Sámi culture of the northern Scandinavia, this treatment acts as excellent insulation. During our visit to the Sami tribe in the north of Sweden, we found out that they are masters of recycling, on of the most important ingredients of ecology. In their cold and empty landscape they live with only the reindeer. After its death the animal is completely recycled; they eat the meat, re use the bones for tent structures or ‘sunglasses’ and the skins are used for tents, clothes and shoes. This is living in total harmony with nature. Within our design we wanted to bring tribute to this way of live!

There are few hours of darkness during the Swedish summer, but light fixtures were carefully chosen to blend with the natural surroundings. Footsteps in the
living area cause Ingo Maurer’s ‘Birdie’ chandelier to tremble overhead. Above the kitchen and dining area, custom red polycarbonate ceiling fixtures were inspired by the aurora borealis.

The house is almost a CO2 free design. Its environmental footprint is small: cooking is by propane gas; heating by a wood-fuelled stove, whose chimney sticks out of the house’s retracting head; and the lavatory is a hut, without so much as a septic tank, reached via a path through the trees. The building is built from certified wood only, all structural wood an interior finishes from local supply. The stream feeds a hot-tub and is used for bathing; the bath water is heated by an underwater wood stove. The lighting is powered by solar panels, and the sense of space far greater than you might imagine.

Houses normally only come alive, or appear to express emotions, in fairytales or stories by Edgar Allan Poe, yet this one does both, while the fact that it tucks its head in when the temperature drops and hibernates under the snow in winter makes it all the more enchanting.

Quelle / Copyright: