Profile

Email

id11185@alunos.uminho.pt

Science ID

EC1D-0190-3C3F

Ciênciavitae

n/a

ORCID

n/a

Lab2PT Group

LandS - Landscapes and Societies

Scientific Area

Architecture

Supervision

Carlos Alberto Maia Domínguez

Project Title

From the habitat that regenerates. Proposals for housing based on modular wooden systems

Abstract

Despite the ambitions to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, in order to fulfill the goals of the Paris Agreement, the building and construction sector remains one of the most resource-intensive and greenhouse gas-emitting industries in the world, accounting for 40% of worldwide CO2 emissions. Actually, over the past few decades, globalization and population growth have led to an exponential rise in demand in the housing market and, by extension, in the building industry. However, the transition, which has already started, is challenging and complex because it calls for the worldwide participation of numerous organizations in altering the way that building systems, which have been a part of our everyday existence for over a century, are used. Wood is one of the alternatives that is most frequently used nowadays (under responsible forestry conditions) because of its physical qualities and, most importantly, because it produces fewer carbon emissions during manufacturing than steel or concrete. Furthermore, as wood retains its capacity to store CO2 after application and throughout the life of the building, working as a natural carbon filter, it helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. After a century-long focus on other materials, in the last few decades technological advancements have made it possible to innovate systems centered around the use of wood, however, there are still some questions that require further exploration. It is necessary to standardize production and manufacturing processes based on prefabrication and modularization principles in order to achieve greater precision and optimization of the solutions, decreasing building time, prices, and waste from raw materials. In addition, this kind of approach will make it possible to develop new architectural solutions trying to solve the rigidity and irreversibility of buildings, which are two of the most important issues facing housing today. Most current models are still created as inflexible, fixed, monofunctional structures that discourage any kind of regeneration, based on matrices that sustain the conventional family's traditional model and are founded on rigid, impenetrable compartmentalization. Adaptability and flexibility in housing are, and always have been, necessities and key components of architecture. People today need to constantly adapt to their surroundings and themselves because of the fast-paced, disposable, and quickly obsolescent nature of modern items. Migrations on a global scale, different kinds of co-housing or even the personal changes are some of the new questions that buildings have to answer. Designing with the reversibility of construction systems and materials in mind not only allows for the concept of "looping" in construction, with environmental advantages that enable the development of a circular economy in the sector, but also unleashes multiple social benefits. In this sense, it is imperative to develop prefabricated and modular construction systems able to adress the formalization of a reversible proposition that adjusts to the scale of time and its multiple reformulations, many of which are unpredictable. We must allow buildings to change, grow, or shrink over their lifetime, respecting their own nature and, finally, the nature of the people who live in them. It´s the ability to anticipate the unexpected, to adapt to social factors, and to take account of demographic shifts in society in order to stabilize communities, the foundation of real innovative sustainability.

Keywords

Modular; Wood; Flexibility; Housing

FCT Reference

Available soon

Organic Unit

School of Architecture, Art and Design of University of Minho