Ignacio Rojas Hirigoyen Arquitectos and The Andes House have come together to create modular homes that can be configured and modified to build low-cost housing.
At a time when the housing crisis is accelerating day by day, the Industrialized Construction System Prototype is an ingenious solution manufactured by Cromulux in Santiago, and whose final assembly is carried out in the town of Casablanca, Chile.
The prototype was conceived to respond to the urgent global housing crisis.
We decided to build a house as the first prototype of the Construction System, but with these parts and pieces that work like a ‘LEGO’, any other typology can be designed and built.
Ignacio Rojas Hirigoyen
The house prototype includes a thick, laminated fiberboard panel that is expanded with “wooden sub-modules that are joined by means of a system of closures and wedges«. This, in turn, forms a foundation or building blocks for floors, ceilings, and walls. All of this creates the modular coordination of steel and wood carpentry without excess material, and where each piece has its own place and function.
All panels have been positioned and installed within a lightweight structure built from recycled steel.
The structure measures 5 by 18 m, while building a house that occupies 80 m2. The panels have been covered with a vapor barrier and corrugated metal plates, which provide ventilation to the façade.
The roof has a rather gable shape and is made of metal. It forms a striking triangular truss at the top of the house.
Under its wide eaves, a draft is achieved that brings fresh air inside through the windows located below them. It also serves as a fog trap for condensation, which allows water to be collected and serves as a support for the solar panels for an electrical scheme that is 100% isolated from the network.
Ignacio Rojas Hirigoyen
The interiors of the house include two bedrooms, two bathrooms and an open space dining room, living room and kitchen. The house also has a sewage treatment system. The prototype construction process was smooth, efficient and agile. It took four crew members, a bunch of wrenches and screwdrivers, and a crane.
Designer: Ignacio Rojas Hirigoyen Architects and The Andes House
