9 Feb 2014

Wiki House Self Build

01-Front-Page-Alastair-Parvin-&-Nick-Ierodiaconou-WikiHouse-Self-Build-www-designstack-co
Alastair Parvin and Nick Ierodiaconou started WikiHouse in 2011, which is a way of allowing people to design and construct their own house, regardless of their skill levels in Design / Building  or access to a lot of money.  
They have constructed prototypes of this system and for an averaged size house like the one in the article, you only need 2 people to erect it.  
WikiHouse is an open product system, that means it is free to use, you can interact with it and help to make it better.
More information in the Article, under the pictures.  Two videos in the article will explain the process better (the second one especially).





02-Video-1-Alastair-Parvin-&-Nick-Ierodiaconou-WikiHouse-Self-Build-www-designstack-co
Design Process:
You have 3 options, 1. You can design your own Building (using Google's Sketchup, which is free).  2. You can get a the design from the WikiHouse library. 3. You can get a model from WikiHouse's library and modify it to suit you.

03-Video-2-Alastair-Parvin-&-Nick-Ierodiaconou-WikiHouse-Self-Build-www-designstack-co
Printing / Cutting File:
Once you have your 3D design, you send it to WikiHouse that will break the design down, into manageable components that can then be easily assembled.  They are then saved in an electronic format.  A simplified version is shown above.

04-Design-Process-Alastair-Parvin-&-Nick-Ierodiaconou-WikiHouse-Self-Build-www-designstack-co
CNC Cutting:
You can then take the file to your Carpenter, that will download it into his CNC machine.  The results is a lot of numbered components that can be assembled just like and Ikea piece of furniture.


This system is still at its infancy and it will need the collaboration of a lot of people to give their work and ideas for free to make it better and overcome all the problems.  Collaboration without expecting compensation in return, is essential for this system to work.

There are things like Planning and Building Regulations that vary enormously around the world, so the Plans will have to be tailor made for the area of the planet you are in.  At the moment this system just provides the shell of the House, specialist things like Foundations, Plumbing and Electrical Systems will still have to be done by competent and experienced people.

Examples for other uses of this technology could be, Emergency Relief, or building in poor areas.   Instead of shipping the components over long distances, you send the file, over the internet, to the closest CNC machines to the area you want to build in.  This will increase the efficiency of the project and the buildings can be erected in record time.

It is really worth investigating and investing in this new view of Design and Building, to see if more can be done to make it accessible to the masses, without them having to mortgage their life to attain a home.


1 comment:

  1. Anonymous2/12/2014

    Super Efficient use of materials.

    ReplyDelete

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