The “WOODCUBE” is a five-storey apartment building with a flexible number of apartments. The design demonstrates the possibilities of forward-looking solid timber construction: the Efficiency House 40 largely avoids the use of non-renewable raw materials in both its construction and its operation. Energy and heat energy are carbon neutral and derived from renewable sources.
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SPECIAL FEATURES
• The floor plan typology allows for different types of occupation, adapted to urban living requirements. • The use of renewable building materials results in a structure that is carbon neutral in terms of its construction and operation. • Multistory solid timber construction. After this short introduction the “WOODCUBE Smart Material House” will be presented in brief, and then explained in detail. The architectural and building services concept will then be described, followed by the planning process. Finally, the model project will be assessed. The focus throughout is on the “WOODCUBE’s” energy concept, the flexible roof, and the wooden construction.
Only when the planning process is examined is it possible to ascertain whether a model building project can serve as a good example for the use of smart materials in the twenty-first century. In addition to setting out technical details for experts, this booklet is intended to provide an objective assessment of whether the “WOODCUBE” model project fulfils this aim, and whether and to what extent it has ultimately succeeded in achieving the goals set out before the planning stage.
The reasons behind these changes were technical, financial, or functional, meaning that some original targets had to be adjusted.
Model projects are particularly liable to undergo planning changes; indeed, besides presenting innovative end products, building exhibitions also seek to test out construction methods and processes. • There is an emphasis on the “aesthetics of phenomena”, which mainly focuses on the behaviour of materials. It is not important how the material presents itself, but when it makes its appearance.
The architectural and building services concepts behind the “WOODCUBE” are set out in detail in this White Paper. The planning process is also outlined clearly, as a large number of alterations were made between the design stage and the final execution of the project. Along with the increasing importance of time processes, an “open layout” can be changed into a “reconfigurable layout”. Reconfigurable layouts are generated from the mutability of the space, the transformability of the materials, and the adaptability of the technologies, no longer solely through their (static) openness to different uses.
• The new technologies make it possible to multiply building services and distribute them to various surfaces. Materials become dynamic infrastructures that can produce variable, partly contradictory effects.
• With the extension of multifunctional surfaces, the time factor becomes an integral part of the design and simultaneously makes it possible to use space and buildings in hybrid ways. • Since the beginning of the modern period, building services have been bundled away, centralised, and thus often rendered invisible. With the proliferation of smart materials, the material surface can itself become a medium carrying energy and information.
Accordingly, it performs additional functions, such as being a “power plant”, providing “energy storage”, or comprising a “communications point” in the urban context.
• The building envelope is the central element of the energy exchange between inside and outside. It controls inflowing and outflowing energy streams and the circulation of material. Using smart materials and smart technologies, building envelopes can actively regulate energy and material flows. The infrastructures of the city need to be rethought and reorganised in this context:
• Through the integration of urban functions with building technology, the house becomes an active participant in a (communicative, i.e. feedback) network. Water systems, power generation, the use of waste heat, miniature pumps, and combined heat and power are installed and deployed locally or in the immediate vicinity. Much of the energy consumed in buildings is to be recovered in the future from existing local anergy, to reduce the proportion of high exergy.
• A performative understanding of materials and technologies enables and fosters a new approach to the architectural design process.
A paradigm shift towards decentralised infrastructure systems is becoming apparent. By decentralisation we mean the integration of urban functions with building technology. These days, it can be observed that sustainability forms the background to many design decisions.
• Smart materials and smart technologies, through their adaptive functions, make it possible to control energy and material flows sustainably. • The adaptability of smart materials endows time processes with great significance. For this purpose, the existing categories of materials must be considered afresh, because smart materials, being active, take on opposing properties and functions at different times. Material and technological innovations in architectural history were always associated with a fundamental change in what architecture could and should be.
As its starting point for the “Smart Material Houses” theme, the International Building Exhibition Hamburg (IBA) presented the following basic ideas. Smart materials are active, with a transformative character. They respond to changing environmental conditions. In an intelligent interaction with “smart technologies”, this process can be extended to the level of networked building services, and can monitor and optimise energy and material maintenance.
A “Smart Material House” is a new form of residential building in which adaptable architectural designs can be combined with intelligent technologies and construction materials. As one of the main themes of the “Building Exhibition within the Building Exhibition”, these constitute an architectural pilot project, using four exemplary building types to show how new technological approaches can be translated into a forwardlooking architectural language, and traditional techniques reinterpreted.
... since a large proportion of these materials draw energy directly or indirectly from the surrounding environment.
Smart materials can be found in nature. Microalgae, for example, can be bred in the glass sections of façades: they then use photosynthesis to turn solar thermal energy into heat energy, biomass, and heat. The façade itself becomes part of the building services. These special characteristics result from physical or chemical influences, such as varying temperatures or sunlight falling on the building material.
The building shell is one of the most crucial elements in this respect: the use of smart materials in the façade can enable energy and material flows to be improved and kept as low as possible,... “Smart materials” are materials, material systems, and products that can be derived from them that behave not in a static but a dynamic way, in contrast to conventional building materials. In other words, because of their nature, these materials react to changing environmental conditions and adapt to them.
At first glance, these improvements and possibilities are nearly unbelievable.
We combined our ancestors' traditional methods with modern technology and found the solutions needed in the 21st century. Cordially yours, Erwin Thoma, Goldegg - Natural cooling effect in summer months and warming effect in winter.
- Minimal room temperature fluctuations due to the slow cooling down (Thermal Mass) of the wooden walls. - Up to 3,500 heart beats less per day (wood soothes the heart) - A dream atmosphere for allergic and sensitive people With this system we achieved:
- A world record in thermal insulation of any structural building products - A 5 times better fire safety ratings than conventional buildings - 99.9% effective barrier to electromagnetic radiation, e.g. cell phones, microwaves, etc. To make this vision reality, I have founded a Scientific Research Centre in Goldegg where we test and investigate traditional 'Moon Timber' and building methods. We are finding extraordinary evidence for its longevity and have been able to develop and patent our Holz100 System which consists of prefabricated 100% natural wood elements.
Dear Reader,
While I was writing this book, I didn't anticipate the overwhelming appreciation and rising awareness towards sustainable forestry management and the influence of the moon. My passion is to build solid wooden homes which are (technically and scientifically measurably) superior in all building disciplines and regulations to conventional homes. |
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