Making housing affordable through industrialized construction ought to be a straightforward undertaking. Large numbers of repeating units scaled and patterned over easy to put together systems can be applied massively. Previous blog posts discussed mobile homes, lightweight timber framing or even large concrete panel systems in pre and post war Europe. All deployed a simple but effective recipe: Sharing building systems among numerous projects and across contexts requires less design resources and can further be democratized in a type of sharable housing kit outlined by basic parts tweaked to respond to functional and regional parameters.
British architect Walter Segal introduced DIY open frame structure to 20th century architectural practice Self-build and similar ideas can be traced to Japanese traditional post and beam structures repeating dimensions and principles to achieve an efficient and resilient housing supply. Elemental Architects’ Incremental Housingreaffirms these simple principals of mass-producing parts adaptable enough to be arranged and even rearranged according to needs in an open-source design strategy.
A recent proposal by Bernardo Horta for a co-housing community in Brazil, the Cumbe Housing Project, outlines a skeletal post and beam structure to shape modular living units that can be used as stand-alone micro dwellings or combined in a multidirectional framework to create multi-room or even multi-flat dwellings. The bolted columns and beams frame a double shed-roof portal frame section. Gable ends could be combined with other modular units to organize a linear row-housing strip. Precut timber parts are used for the structure, recycled tires filled with concrete are suggested for foundations and end walls are infilled with wattle and daub influenced by vernacular building traditions. Front and back elevations are left to be customized according to occupant needs and could feasible be infilled with low-tech local materials that do not need any intensive labor. Horta’s proposal intends that all other required elements, doors, windows and other building pieces be added and adapted according to local supply chains and even changed, replaced or reconfigured over time as owners’ economic conditions and product supply evolves.
Cumbe Housing system components
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