Sustainable housing construction: modular details and typology

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the potential of flexibility in housing to endeavour to solve problems raised by waste of resources in the construction industry. The availability of resources and their usage after a building project raise many concerns. Various strategies can be carried out to improve these issues; in this proposal, the focus is to propose a building system for housing projects that could optimize material usage and building lifespan. Consequently the proposal will explore two areas: layout design and technical realization with details. Exploring these different approaches, various methods will be used to pursue this research. For the building layout, reports, references, and experimentation in the subjects of dimensions and modularity will be examined. For the building system, there is a preliminary phase of prospection and inventory of existing solutions, then following these results, it will be possible to experiment while still performing research to complete the design. These parallel developments are then assembled and shown in a generic proposal. Researching the subject of this thesis, many elements have been learned about construction solutions and possible assembly methods. The main achievement is the design of a building system made up of modules which allow a longer lifespan. There have been many challenges as the possibilities of solutions were endless and complex to attain the goal of disassembly and adaptability. The final proposition shows how those issues have been solved and arranged together. The building layout aspect was less challenging; however, it was still constrained by the dimensions of the construction. In the end, both aspects of the thesis work in cohesion to pursue a longer lifespan. Using concepts of adaptability, design for disassembly and modularity in cohesion with architectural reflections on materiality and dimensions has helped to propose a system that is flexible and durable over time. The overall project shows that there are many possibilities to save resources and solve waste issues, using simple but efficient designs strategies.