Expandable House Part 02
?Scaling up the expandable house? – We first reported on the expandable house project in 2018 when we had completed construction of the first floor (36m2). The house has now expanded to its limit of three floors (108m2). Here we report on the conclusion of phase two of the project, in which all of the technical systems required to hoist the roof with manual labor and simple tools, collect rainwater, solar energy and manage domestic waste have been successfully trialed.
Phase 3 of the project involves piloting the neighborhood and township elements at 1:1, such as alleyways, courtyards, public spaces, district cooling, water retention and peer-to-peer energy sharing systems. We have begun to do this by mocking up neighboring houses with scaffolding and printed canvas. Our team is working with developers in Indonesia to secure a suitable site for a larger-scaled and commercial implementation of phase 3, which we call Tropical Town. Photography by © Carlina Teteris
Background – The expandable house (rumah tambah in Bahasa Indonesia, or rubah for short) offers affordable and sustainable dwelling options to the rapidly growing populations of Asia?s largest cities. Combining lessons from existing informal settlements, incremental housing precedents and principles of sustainable tropical building, the expandable house is designed to adapt to the fluctuating patterns of resource consumption and expenditure, or metabolism, of its residents...