Emergency Housing
Academic Project | Participated Individually | My Work: Research and Design | 2017
Introduction
Living in a place has been considered since our rural settlement. When solid and durable houses replaced temporary houses, they transformed early wandering humans into more modern humans. Security and comfort were the most incredible things that human beings could achieve by monogamy.
Today, most of the world’s population is monogamous, and a small group moves their own homes with themselves. This group moves to different places in different seasons and chooses a place to settle depending on their needs. So if the challenge of building and using mobile homes is solved for modern and urban humans, this idea could be exciting. In addition, in times of floods and earthquakes, when countless homes are destroyed, mobile homes have a good potential for housing victims in critical situations. Also, these houses can be a practical and suitable option for the poor class because of their simplicity and cheapness. Therefore, according to the above explanations, the purpose of this plan is to design a mobile home with the necessary facilities for modern urban life.
IDEAS AND CONCEPTS
Dimensions and size
After examining the dimensions of required and minimum spaces of a one-bedroom house with a living room, kitchen, and bathroom, modules with dimensions of 2.6m by 2.6m by 3m were selected. A rectangular space measuring 10.4 by 2.6 was obtained by putting these modules together, including the entire living space. Another module was added to the space as input which defined reduced the uniformity of the design.
Construction
Three essential points had to be considered to build this house with these specifications:
1. A home bed that can be built on any bed.
2. Construction material that should be both light and durable.
3. Health facilities which is an essential point in the life of modern human beings.
Foundation
For the bed of this house, a concrete foundation was used in the form of a slab. This foundation is the main structure of the house. The reason for using a wide and raised foundation from the ground was the insulation and relative protection of the house from the moisture flow of the ground surface. It can also be used in all climates and soils. The connection of the structure to the foundation is established at 17 points by long screws and studs.
Structure
Magnetic toys inspired the construction system of this house. Initially, these houses were supposed to be designed with a space frame system, but after a feasibility study, it was determined that it is better to choose frame structures due to the high cost and many components. Therefore, the original system was designed inspired by several cross-sectional Vierendeel trusses. The rigid joints in the Vierendeel truss call the basic idea of the design into question, as those joints are often fixed and, in some cases, require long elements. Therefore, the frames were turned into trusses, and their articulated joints were selected in space frame structures due to the ease of execution. These fittings are called Merv, which can connect several pipes at one point. Therefore, pipe type was selected as the cross-section of the house building elements. Finally, the final structure consisted of a 5.2 by 10.4 by 3m cube with two outer truss walls to withstand wind and earthquake forces and fully articulated joints.
Materials
The material of the pipes is galvanized, which is very light and suitable for the central concept of this design. Merv connections are made of all steel and allow four connections. For the cover between the main structure, two materials of OSB wood sheets were used for areas with lower rainfall risk and aqua panel cement panels for areas with higher rainfall risk. Chance canopies were also placed around the volume that could provide more comfort with shading.
Health facilities
The main challenge in mobile homes may be their facilities. This may not be important in the old forms of mobile homes, but the bathroom and toilet of a mobile home are essential for modern humans. For the convenience of installation connections and sewage transfer, the kitchen, bathroom, and toilet were placed side by side. All wastewater is then transferred to a system such as a septic tank that residents or others can discharge at intervals.
Email: maryam.jahadakbar@gmail.com