The New York architecture firm Clouds Architecture Office (Clouds AO) recently presented the conceptual design of a prefabricated house that solves a challenge they were asked to meet: to create a small house that could be mass-produced and sold worldwide at an affordable price. The challenge they faced therefore demanded an answer on three fronts: manufacturing, location and cost. Their answer was the Double Ring House, a spherical prefabricated house. But let’s look at how they resolved these three issues with their conceptual design.
First, the designers at Clouds AO asked themselves what would be the right shape for a house that could be adapted to any geographical location on the planet, regardless of its climatic conditions. After testing various shapes and configurations, they settled on the sphere: “a circular floor plan that can be rotated to any extent, to orient the openings in the best direction in a given location, with the same basic circular surface on the ground”. Moreover, the sphere is a structurally strong shape, which distributes the forces operating on it equally over its entire surface, with no concentration of loads. Its geometry also allows for maximum interior volume with minimum exterior surface area, and thanks to the seamless curves it offers a subjective feeling of more space. Finally, its curved shape deflects rain and prevents snow accumulation, making it suitable for all weather conditions.
In terms of fabrication and cost, Clouds AO says the Double Ring House shell can be easily fabricated with a glass-fibre reinforced concrete sandwich panel system. At the same time, its spherical surface can be divided into twelve parts with the same basic shape, which facilitates mass production and reduces costs. Finally, the design anticipates that each prefabricated house, equipped with all its parts except for the furnishings, in other words, its structural, electrical and plumbing, mechanical elements and finishes, can be transported in a single standard container for shipment anywhere in the world. Although the Double Ring House is still in the conceptual design phase, according to Clouds AO, it is expected to go on sale in 2022.
