Moxon Architects Ltd

Team Members: Ben Addy and Tim Murray

The concept is for a lightweight steel box that acts both as a structurally integral element and a passive responsive thermal energy saving shell. Considered as a deep build-up of layers of structure and cladding, the steel is folded and fragmented around the form, lifted and split in areas to allow light into the house. Spatially, as well as environmentally, the house is considered as a number of parallel layers, making use of the self spanning possibilities of the steel façade to free up the internal arrangements and provide sliding subdivision of space. For the two-storey variants, the planning is “upside down” with sleeping and private functions on the lower level and an open plenum on the top level providing the main living space. The proposal makes use of the steel’s thermal conductivity to increase the performance of the passive responsive materials incorporated into the structure. By building up the thickness of the walls in layers, e.g. building plastic tanks of water into the wall structure, a high thermal mass can be mimicked, lessening the effect of extreme or sudden changes in external temperature on the internal environment.

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