F451

DROP house prototype . Santa Catarina Pinula

F451 . MIBA . SHO ARQ . photos: © Juan Gándara

DROP housing prototypes are a result of a research program integrated our team, SHO ARQ, MODULTEC (manufacturer), BOMAImpasa (structural design) and Atres80 (MEP design) for the development of expandable industrialized housing units based on passive house models.

DROP is a series of adaptive low-cost/high performance prototypes that intend to be an alternative to the brick-based/high cost/low performance plague that has colonized the Iberic territory in the last decades as well as a solution for single units construction in remote territories where traditional construction is not a reasonable option. DROP technology emerges from our conviction that it is now the moment for a real industrial revolution on the construction miscalled industry and searches to maximize program flexibility and growth potential and minimize energy waste and ecological footprint in the low density residential areas.

DROP prototypes project starts from a critical review of the traditional suburban single family housing. This review is approached from several points of view:
Type:
Housing unit must respond to a user casuistry as plural versatile and adaptable as possible. The traditional detached house responds to a type of family increasingly rare and unstable, with needs that involve a high initial investment. The DROP series are typologically structured from a continuous space that groups the basic daily functions (toilet-kitchen-living-dining-porch) around which other programs (office, bedroom /s, etc ...) are organized allowing maximum partitioning flexibility and expansion in timeThis approach has a double goal: first, to provide an adequate response to the diverse contemporary household. Furthermore, to facilitate access to the housing unit to a wider range of purchasing power.
Formal approach:
The DROP series and its growth alternatives are modular from the constructive point of view, but not from the formal one. Industrialization often links modularity as both expressive and technical factor. In this case, the volumes and growth options are simply modulated to fit the constraints of transport but the resolution of the volumes in each of its versions is monolithic. Indeed, extensions are not read in the volumes as added bodies but as new formalizations.
Energy:
One of the biggest impacts of the traditional low density housing development is the high demand for energy and water consumption involved.
Construction:
Another negative impact of the traditional model is the high environmental impact during construction-high water consumption, CO2 emissions from transport to work, and the irreversibility of the construction processes and the corresponding ecological footprint that implies. This house is built dry (except slabs in cases greater inertia and heating is required) and is completely removable, reusable and recyclable. The housing can be disassembled and moved to modules elsewhere or completely dismantled and recycled component.
Investment cost:
Unlike the traditional model, the investment required to access a DROP unit is relatively small and adjustable along time without involving long processe. The drastic reduction of construction time-due to faster construction speed and overlapping of on site and off site works- is also a key factor in making affordable housing, since the duplicate housing costs during the construction time and the amortization period are reduced very considerably
Production model:
Unlike other industrial sectors, construction has never experienced a real industrial revolution. Nevertheless remains a largely nomadic sector dependent on weather conditions, with high levels of job insecurity and accidents and does not contribute to a sustainable local economy.A fully industrialized construction based on stable production centres properly distributed in the territory, is necessary for the construction industry begins to equate to the real industry in terms of its contribution to a healthy and sustainable social model.. In this context, housing DROP represents a very modest contribution in this direction.

The DROP house prototype series (S, M &L) was been developed by Toni Montes (MIBA) and Juan Gándara (SHO ARQ) while being part of F451.

Design team:
Toni Montes Boada, Santiago Ibarra Oriol, Xavier Osarte Salvany, Lluis Ortega Cerdà, Esther Segura Folch, Juan Fernando Gándara Y Cifuentes