The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) has entered the Fab Lab house into the 2010 Solar Decathlon Europe contest. More about it below:
The selection of wood, not steel, as the basic structural material is deduced from two lines of thought, the first being that a solar house must be reduced from a solar material and the second that the choice of wood leads to structural elements and components which are small, light and manageable. Thus material, scale of building elements and level of technology used will be selected not for their excellence and functional optimi zation, but also by its availability and ease of use and maintenance.
CONSTRUCTION AND ASSEMBLY
We propose a pre-fabricated wooden construction in which all its structural components are laser cut from a 1220×1440mm plywood sheet. These components are then assembled and transported in transversal ring sections to site. Upon arrival to site, each section is then lifted and fixed into place.
Through the utilisation of a global network of production laboratories (FabLab’s), we begin to promote the idea of using the Internet to make things. The computer, attached to a laser cutter allows you to print a chair, for example, with a wood-cutting machine and then assemble it. The prototype reduces energy expenditure by 25%, It is through the use of such passive techniques that we aim to use technology, of fabrication and within installed components (i.e. solar panels), efficiently. We propose to measure this efficiency by the relationship between price, availability, complexity / opacity of technology, usability, ease of assembly, maintenance and how malleable it is to the design process.
Read more here.