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03/09/2010
The first two families have moved into houses billed as a potential solution to help alleviate demand of the world’s growing population on housing infrastructure in developing countries.
The NovoHouse, developed by Cartwright Pickard Architects as part of the Living Steel programme, is a new concept in housing based on five fundamental principles; affordability, flexibility, sustainability, permanence and ease of assembly. The project seeks to exploit the latest steel construction technology to develop an affordable housing model that allows low-income families to live in improved home environments.
The NovoHouse blueprint is as radical as it is flexible, allowing for local site constraints and varying cultures, living habits and space standards. The permanent, lightweight steel frame is independent from the cladding structure and is designed to resist local environmental catastrophes, such as earthquakes or cyclones.
Initially two NovoHouses have been completed in the mountain village of Hongkou, in the Dujiangyan Province of China, an area notorious for severe earthquakes. The first two resident families to move in are both local kiwi farmers whose homes were wrecked in the Sichuan quake. One of the children living in the house, Wang Chang Xian, was born on the day of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and was named by the Sichuan Premier, Liu Qibao.
Their new homes, paid for by Living Steel, have been built on a platform (approx 3m x 3m) laid directly on the ground, designed to modulate temperature fluctuations. Since Hongkou is an area of outstanding beauty, the design includes guest rooms that the families can rent to tourists to create an additional income. To ensure the houses are sympathetic with the local area, vernacular materials such as concrete, timber and masonry have been used for cladding and tiles reclaimed from damaged earthquake hit houses are used for the roof.
In total, 40 houses are planned for the entire region, with 20 currently under construction. Each house uses cold-formed steel to create the structural framework delivered in prefabricated panels from a factory either on site or nearby. A unique feature of the NovoHouse is that once on location, local, unskilled labourers will be able to assemble the lightweight structures easily by hand. Though the steel structure is permanent, indigenous materials will be used to clad the dwellings, such as handmade mud-bricks, straw bales, timber or bamboo – virtually any cladding material available locally and one that suits the climate.
Throughout the entire design process sustainability has been a major consideration for NovoHouses. All steel contains recycled content and is itself recyclable. The flexibility of each house allows low-cost passive technologies to be incorporated in, or retrofitted to, the custom design. The aim of using local labour, and local materials, will also help to generate income in the areas where housing is planned, helping to stimulate local economies.
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