Prefabrication experiments - 418 - M(dwellings) - Driemond Core House

 

Industrialization impacted the design of everything from cars to utensils. Once, artisanally produced objects were democratized by repetitive ingredients, flows, supply chains and mechanized fabrication. These ideas reduced costs per unit while stimulating similar organizing principles in all sectors; products were made up of manufactured subcomponents that played specific roles in their functions. In architecture, rationalization played out using rigorous grids, component cataloguing, assembly details along with zoning of served and service elements. The service core, an integrated unit incorporating wet and technical spaces, is symbolic of these design tenets, material frugality and potentially applying mass production to house construction. 

 

Theorized often but marginally applied as a manufacturing methodology for homes, architects and architectural pedagogy explore the core extensively to clearly define, separate and celebrate the relationship between served and service spaces. Strategically located, the core expresses a specifically modern vision for designing small dwellings related to the principle of a machine for living. Tuning and containing these spaces in a simple shape also contributes to a flexible or adaptable interaction between the anchored core and its surrounding spaces. 

 

Dutch Architects, The Way We Build have masterfully redeployed these modern canons in a 170 square meter detached home in the Dutch town of Driemond. A perfect 10 by 10 meter square, the ground floor plan is arranged by an asymmetrically placed core to achieve a clever interaction between the functional hub and its surrounding spaces. The core, a green one storey box delineates two principal areas and 4 smaller sectors: entry, kitchen workspace, flexible space and living, dining areas. Each relates formally to adjacent exterior spaces. The volume includes kitchen, integrated storage, bathroom, and a staircase to the upper floor. A murphy bed also included in the core transforms the flexible sector into a guest bedroom. A large gliding partition slides to separate the living area and fashion a guest bedroom around the deployed bed. Another smaller sliding door integrated in the core seals this flexible bedroom space. This small house is an artful presentation of the core’s potential to rationalize domestic amenities.  

The Driemond House by architects, The Way We Build