Judging Home |
COMBO CUBE (#40) |
|
 |
|
|
|
Images
| |
| Type of building: | Residential |
Entry Description | |
| COMBO CUBE is a house like the meal. You are free to choose any room on the menu, and combine these rooms to your own house. | |
| A discussion of design for adaptability and disassembly techniques incorporated: The basic concept of COMBO CUBE is to divide the whole living space of a house into individual units, which in form of varied boxes with different functions are plugged in a cuboid matrix (13m x 4m x 8m) to shape a single building with two floors. Defined as diverse uses, such like living, kitchen, bedroom, dinning, and toilet…etc, the boxes are designed to meet the minimal requirements of living space for two adults. One box may be used for one or two functions. For example, L1 is the code name of living room. K1 the code name of kitchen. L2 can be the code name of a box used for WC and kitchen. There are a series of types of boxes in different sizes. The user can select different combination of boxes according to their own needs to shape their own house. E.g. L1 (living) + C1 (bedroom) +K1 (kitchen) +B1 (WC) = COMBO TYPE1. In order to share the standard construction with each other, the sizes of some boxes served as certain functions are the same. There is also another option. Some boxes, which can be replaced with each other and plugged in the same place of the cuboid matrix, have the same height and the same width, but their depths are different, to accommodate diverse activities. The structure of COMBO CUBE is composed of skeleton and boxes. Each box made of steel construction is a single room. It is prefab in factory, transported, and then assembled on site. The skeleton made of wooden frame is also prefab and assembled on site to be plugged in with boxes. Two pieces of wooden frame form two bearing skeletons with a wide of 40 cm to carry the weight of the boxes. The wooden frame is infilled with vernacular clay bricks on site, which performs a good physical character for isolation and adjustment of moisture. There are many small openings equipped with steel box in the solid exterior walls of clay brick for day lighting and ventilation. | |
| Environmental implications of entry: The boxes of COMBO CUBE which are made of the steel with several reasonable and uniform specifications could be produced heavily in the plant to reduce production costs and time. The main skeleton which is made of wood as an environmentally-friendly material could reduce environmental impact. The walls are made of the local materials in Taiwan - clay and it is a practice with the economic and environmental benefits. While the boxes which are set after completed skeleton, it can also be dismantled. When the boxes of house become old or damaged or the owner wants to change the indoor pattern, they can keep the original skeleton and just replace the boxes. As the result there are many environmental benefits for renovating the building. COMBO CUBE is a standardized single, it is possible to combine singles, stack vertically as a high building, or develop horizontally as a community. It is positive for landscape and urban planning. | |
| Economic or policy implications of entry: 1. Using the recyclable material (clay) could reduce the consumption of resources and the cost of building. Because clay is an isolating material, it has the effect of being warm in the winter and cold in the summer. Besides if the need of clay become more, it also could promote the development of clay industry in Taiwan. Then it will become a local architectural culture. 2. The frame made of wood is an environmentally-friendly material and it could be recyclable to reduce environmental impact. 3. The boxes made of steel are recyclable. If only the box was broken, we can just replace the box. It is not supposed to demolish the whole building. | |
| Explain how the entry advances lifecycle building education: The whole life cycle of combo cube includes planning, building, using, maintaining, rebuilding and demolishing. 1. In the planning process, the owner and architect could discuss together. They have many choices from the catalog about the indoor space compartment. They could design together and choose the suitable boxes according to the different situation. 2. About building, the boxes could be prefabed in the plant and then delivered to the construction site. Skeleton is built at the site. The boxes will set into the reserved hole on the wall after finishing skeleton. 3. About maintaining and reconstructing, the owner could not only replace the box for a broken one, but also discuss with the architect together at the planning process. It will reserve the bigger holes on the major walls for replacing the bigger boxes in the future. 4. About demolishing, the wood of skeleton, clay of the walls and damaged boxes could recycle after demolishing. The complete boxes also could reuse at the other places. | |
| Additional information: | |
Entry Metrics | |
| Estimated building square footage: 33x10 square feet | |
| Tons of concrete reduced/conserved in your entry: tons | |
| Explanation: | |
| Tons of wood reduced/conserved in your entry: | |
| Explanation: | |
| Tons of steel reduced/conserved in your entry: | |
| Explanation: | |
| Tons of aluminum reduced/conserved in your entry: | |
| Explanation: | |
| Tons of carpet reduced/conserved in your entry: | |
| Explanation: | |
| Tons of Green House Gasses Reduced: | |
| Discussion of Green House Gas reduction implications of your entry: | |
| Other energy conservation features of your entry: | |