French designers continue to put the “fab” in prefab: Construisons Demain, a brilliant design from architect Eric Wuilmot, premiered at Batimat in Paris earlier this month. The system showcases low-energy living with three prefabricated wooden modules, resource and energy efficient systems, healthy finish materials, and inviting living spaces.
The structure uses FSC-certified wood siding to create a footprint just 12 x 17 meters. An 8 x 8 meter interior courtyard invites natural daylight with a sliding glass canopy that can be opened in summer. The sheltered outside patio allows natural ventilation and cooling for high-indoor environmental quality. At roof level, the courtyard is flanked by vegetated roofs that retain and recover rainwater.
The building is highly insulated with wood wool and wool cellulose. Double-glazed wood windows have an argon fill to increase the building’s thermal envelope. Solar thermal collectors coupled with a a condensing boiler provide heat for domestic hot water and radiant underfloor heating. Sixteen rooftop mounted photovoltaic panels capture solar to generate electricity.
Interior finishes focus on low-emission materials including no-VOC textile tiles made from recycled polyamide fiber and low emission eco-labeled paints. Finish choices are high in recycled content, recyclable, and reusable. The home is wired for intelligent management that allows remote adjustment of system functions and continual improvements to overall energy efficiency.
+ Construisons Demain
+ Batimat
This is a fantastic website and a great project. A group of architect students have started Project Outrage. With this group we are trying to inform as many people as possible about our plight for design and construction that not only aesthetically conscious, but is also sustainable. If anyone is interested in this group please join our facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5419659662
check out our website:
http://www.theslowhome.com/blog/outrage/
and please also take a moment to sign our declaration against the unhealthy mass production of suburban homes:
http://www.theslowhome.com/blog/declaration/
thanks
crystal
[...] Via [Inhabitat] [...]
This is an outstanding blog. I just came across it and am loving the content you have compiled here. I look forward to following it much more closely.
Courtyards good. Full glass walls…. deal-killer. Life in the Fishbowl, zero acoustical privacy (say byebye to your sex life unless you don’t make a peep), questionable visual privacy (those drop-down curtains don’t seal to the edges, perfect for the voyeur who doesn’t mind a slightly skewed view), and no security whatsoever (one brick is all it takes to gain total access).
What’s with this fetish for glass, anyway? Is this modern architecture embracing the Big Brother Society with a great big smile? Is this a generation who have grown up being photographed and videotaped everywhere they go including the public bathroom stalls so they don’t care any more?
Few things in modern life are quite so disturbing as the willingness of the public to throw away all concepts of privacy.
I love the courtyard. I wonder if one could put those solar louvres from the German Solar Decathalon winner in front (back), and replace much of the walls with glass.
LOL … I may have converted the 8 x 8 sq.m properly (690 sq.ft.) BUT totally missed the part that identified it as being the *courtyard* area.
So, this isn’t the small home of my dreams
… It is, however, a good example of a good concept!!
Cheers again
J
Love the Courtyard concept for a few reasons. Two being useability, and the opportunity to “densify” land use [i.e. no need for room between left/right/back neighbours] without losing access to, and privacy in, an outdoor space!
Also love the fact that this is a *small* home (approx. 690 sq. ft. if I converted correctly) — which is another very necessary aspect if we’re to make best use of land … and not pave over the whole planet
.
Thanks, Inhabitat, for letting us know about it!
Cheers to all
J.
[...] Inhabitat calefacción, colectores solares, Construisons Demain, Eric Wuilmot, [...]
What a beautiful thing to see a courtyard included into ESdesign again.
Just the other day I was writing up a teaching aid on the interpretation of space using the mind game of getting someone to first define what their definiton was of an interior space and then an exterior space.
“Now try to imagine a space that is both interior and exterior at the same time and then explain how you might contain and divide such a space.”
People look at that question and you can see on their faces “Does not compute, does not compute!!!!”
Thank you ‘Demain’ or should I say thank you ancient Crete, 1000 BC.