Inhabitable Skin
Responsive interfaces in contemporary housing design
2016/17
Against the background of a development program in privately financed housing in Austria, an interdisciplinary team (Architect Elsa Prochazka, Cino Zucchi Architetti, Energy Design Cody and further specialist advisers) was commissioned to develop innovative concepts for future housing projects and to oversee their implementation.
After the successful completion of the first development stage of the project in September 2016 and parallel to the implementation phase of the developed concepts on contemporary housing projects in Austria, the topic is also to be explored as part of an academic collaboration between the Politecnico Milano in Italy, the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and Graz University of Technology. Supported by ARE (Austrian Real Estate), a subsidiary of BIG (Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft), the goal is a mutually beneficial cross fertilization between teaching, research and practice.
An important goal of the project is to develop concepts, which deliver higher energy performance, comfort, quality of living and design quality compared to today’s typical residential buildings. A layered façade concept was developed, which besides fulfilling numerous functions related to building ventilation and energy efficiency also provides the spatial advantage of increase the living area for a large portion of the year, when the space extends out to the outer skin. The conceptual approach developed fulfills the high requirements placed on building ventilation in today’s residential buildings, while at the same time offering a new type of living experience for the occupants. The spectrum of solutions developed includes both low and high tech approaches to meet the requirements of different situations.
Common to all the solutions developed is the use of natural forces to maximize energy performance in- stead of the use of large amounts of thermal insulation and heat recovery systems to reduce heat losses. The underlying approach behind the concepts developed is the replacement of the complex multilayered wall constructions and mechanical ventilation systems common to residential buildings developed in recent times with an inhabitable space enclosed by two layers of a homogenous material, which can be easily recycled. The layered façade is provided by a prefabricated module constructed from timber, while the rest of the building can be constructed conventionally. It is expected that the use of prefabrication (quicker construction times) together with the quantity of construction to be carried out in the coming years will lead to a lowering of the specific investment costs involved.