Judging Home |
Spoor House (#39) |
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| Type of building: | Residential |
Entry Description | |
| The goal of this project is to promote sustainable living in suburban communities. The design focus is on a dwelling to the size of the average home built in the 1970s, which is 1550 sq ft, on a 0.1 acre plot. The house is to be prefabricated with 5 ISO containers, using off-the-shelf sustainable technologies, and conventional building techniques. Design and material choices are governed by longevity, environmental friendliness, and strength. | |
| A discussion of design for adaptability and disassembly techniques incorporated: Adaptability ISO containers are perfect modular components, measurements are standardized, and therefore all containers have the same dimensions. Reinforced corners provide abundant strength to allow any cutout of the corrugated walls, since these walls are not relied upon for structural integrity. These modules can be stacked in any configuration. Only interior insulation and a finished wall are required to turn a shipping container in a livable space. Transportation A worldwide transportation and shipping system is in place to move these modules anywhere, making them perfect for off-site prefabrication. Flexibility The goal for this project is to develop small-scale sub-urban living communities comprised of a cluster of buildings similar to the submitted design. The design can be altered easily to create a cluster of homes made with the same techniques, but different in appearance. Each different design can be made on the same assembly line because all building techniques will remain the same from one design to the other. Reassembly The structure is designed to be separated into 5 modules, which can be transported anywhere, and are easily reassembled. Disassembly All components are screwed/bolted, not glued or nailed, for easy dismantling and recovery. Most components are single source and can be returned into existing recycling streams. Rigid insulation panels are chosen for interior insulation versus spray foam for ease of disassembly, recovery and reuse of materials. | |
| Environmental implications of entry: Preference was given for passive systems such as super insulation, solar heating and PV, ground loop cooling, natural ventilation, black-water composting, gray water digestion and rainwater collection. Motorized and computerized systems are often unreliable, costly, and require continuous maintenance, repair and upgrade. Therefore, necessary active systems, such as heating, cooling, ventilation and pumping are kept simple. The result is a reliable home, that uses no natural gas, and less then 10% of electricity and water than a conventional home All exterior components are steel, concrete and cementous materials, which are non-flammable, and can sustain the impact of storms, fire and other natural disasters. It is built high on its foundation, 4 feet above grade, to avoid flooding. Therefore the life expectancy of this design is much longer than that of the average home, offering more safety and security to its occupants. | |
| Economic or policy implications of entry: Sub-urban communities comprised of homes based on the Spoor house design would only require small-scale water, sewer and electricity infrastructures, and no sewer because each home would provide much of its own potable water, generate solar energy, and digest gray and black water. In addition, each building would send back power into the grid, in particular on sunny afternoons when the demand for power is biggest. On a big scale, these conservation measures would alleviate some of the nation’s energy and water supply shortages, lower the cost for these supplies, and contribute towards slowing down global warming and pollution. Studies have shown that green building increases the heath of building occupants, lowering the cost for health insurance. Because the structures are designed to better sustain the impact of natural disasters, they will lower costs for property insurance and emergency relief. | |
| Explain how the entry advances lifecycle building education: The goal of the project is to promote sustainable living at the community level, and the designer plans to demonstrate the design and its lifecycle building components as an educational tool for environmentally responsible, full lifecycle living. The media will be engaged throughout the entire construction process, and each milestone in the construction phase will be followed up by a press release. The design deliberately exposes parts of the container structures, and in a delicate and playful way display that a home can be built from components that had a previous life. The black water composting and gray water digestion systems are designed to plainly show its inner workings for educational purposes. The rainwater collection and filtration system has not received the attention it requires, and the aim is to publicize this technology to a great extend. | |
| Additional information: | |
Entry Metrics | |
| Estimated building square footage: 1600 square feet | |
| Tons of concrete reduced/conserved in your entry: 60 tons | |
| Explanation: The original design had a basement under the entire ground floor, which was 40’ X 24’. The design was altered to minimize construction work, conserve on concrete and reduce soil disruption. The final basement size is 35’ X 24’. | |
| Tons of wood reduced/conserved in your entry: 0 | |
| Explanation: The lumber used for framing of the container wall interior is reduced from 2” X 4” framing members to a 2” X 2” dimension. This is possible by tightly installing rigid foam panels behind and in between the lumber for added reinforcement. | |
| Tons of steel reduced/conserved in your entry: 11 | |
| Explanation: The shipping containers are a recycled material, and can again be recycled for raw materials after its lifecycle. The ground floor perforated steel screens on the north and south are made of recycled material and can be recycled/re-used at the end | |
| Tons of aluminum reduced/conserved in your entry: 0 | |
| Explanation: A deliberate choice was made for vinyl windows versus aluminum, because the R-value of an aluminum assembly is 20% less efficient. This measure does not count as a savings because another material was used instead of aluminum. | |
| Tons of carpet reduced/conserved in your entry: 0 | |
| Explanation: All floors are concrete with area rugs on approximately 20% of the floor area. | |
| Other material: General waste | |
| Tons of other material reduced/conserved in your entry: 4 Ton | |
| Explanation: Pre-fabrication of more than one unit simultaneously streamlines the assembly process, minimizes material loss. This calculation projects a waste savings of 5 Lbs/sq ft | |
| Tons of Green House Gasses Reduced: 106 | |
| Discussion of Green House Gas reduction implications of your entry: This project used an eco-calculator for Assemblies to calculate the environmental and economic impact of the design. Calculations included only building components such as floors, walls, windows and roofs. It did not include electrical mechanical and plumbing systems or any other components to the structure The core of the structure is a shipping container, so calculators for floors, walls and ceilings do not apply, since they are based on conventional construction technologies. For the calculation, the assembly technology closest to a structure with steel shipping container structure was chosen. For example, the exterior walls of the design is comprised of: Steel container wall, rigid foam, vapor barrier, wood stud 2” X 2”, gypsum board, latex paint. In the calculator a choice was made for: Wood stud 2” X 4” steel cladding, WSP sheathing, batt insulation, vapor barrier, gypsum board, latex paint It must be noted that the shipping container is a recycled material, so actual environmental impacts of the assembly are much smaller then in the calculation. | |
| Measurement tool used to calculate GHG reduction: Athena EcoCalculator | |
| Website of GHG measurement tool used: http://athenasmi.ca/tools/ecoCalculator/ | |
| Other energy conservation features of your entry: | |