Photos by: Marko Laukkarinen www.markolaukkarinen.com
More about the project: www.facebook.com/yksiopuutarhassa
and www.yksiopuutarhassa.fi (only in Finnish at the moment)
It is a small house that can be added to backyard. I wanted to create solution that would be tempting for land owners to activate their land to housing.
House is having 50m2 / 538 square feet brutto area (including outer walls) 40m2 / 431 square feet (exluding walls and under 1.6m hight space ) official living area and 49.9m2 floor area.
House is build in four elements that lock each other. Elements was build in factory so that there is not much stress for neighbors. The building comes together less than a day and its waterproof and heated within 24 hours.
Stairs and storage are build in birch plywood that is CNC-cutted. I created a system that allows parts to be assempled without tools. It took only 4,5 hours to get the stairs and storage ready for one person without tools. So this work could be done by the customer. Price was even cheaper that in normal methods. Even laser cutting was tested in the kitchen.
Light and shadows has been one key elements in the design. I wanted to create more spacious feeling so i used laths that have 12mm air between to create floor. That allowed view from downstairs to upstairs and vice versa. It came an interesting element that changes it appearance depending the lighting. When its light it looks very solid and in the dark it looks very light.
Ecology has been one of the guidelines in the planing and choosing materials and manufacturers. This is shown in the building by using a lot of wood, ecological machines, recycled materials (insulation) and of course the size of the building.
Project is also diploma work for Aalto architecture school in Helsinki, Finland.