The Infiniski Manifesto House by James & Mau Architecture
James & Mau Architecture have designed the Infiniski Manifesto House in Curacaví, Chile.
Infiniski is a construction company that specialize in building eco-friendly houses and buildings based on the use of recycled, reused and non polluting materials.
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The Infiniski Manifesto House by James & Mau Architecture
The Manifesto house represents the Infiniski concept and its potential: bioclimatic design, recycled, reused materials, non polluting constructive systems, integration of renewable energy.
The project relies on a bioclimatic architecture adapting the form and positioning of the house to its energetic needs. The project is based on a prefabricated and modular design allowing a cheaper and faster constructive method. This modular system also allows thinking the coherence of the house with possible future modifications or enlargements in order to adapt easily to the evolving needs of the client.
The house, of 160m2 is divided in two levels and uses 3 recycled maritime containers as structure. A container cut in two parts on the first level is used as the support structure for the containers on the second level. This structure in the form a bridge creates an extra space in between the container structure, isolated with thermo glass panels. As a consequence with only 90m2 worth of container, the project generates a total 160m2, maximizing and reducing significantly the use of extra building materials. This structure in the form of a bridge, responds to the bioclimatic needs of the house- Form follows Energy – and offers an effective natural ventilation system. It also helps to take full advantage of the house´s natural surroundings, natural light and landscape views.
Like if it had a second skin, the house “dresses and undresses” itself, thanks to ventilated external solar covers on walls and roof, depending on its need for natural solar heating. The house uses two types of covers or “skin”: wooden panels coming from sustainable forests on one side and recycled mobile pallets on the other. The pallets can open themselves in winter to allow the sun to heat the metal surface of the container walls and close themselves in summer to protect the house from the heat. This skin also serves as an exterior esthetic finishing helping the house to better integrate in its environment.
Both exterior and interior use up to 85% of recycled, reused and eco-friendly materials: recycled cellulose and cork for insulation, recycled aluminum, iron and wood, noble wood coming from sustainable forests, ecological painting, eco-label ceramics. Thanks to its bioclimatic design and to the installation of alternative energy systems the house achieves 70% autonomy.
Visit the James & Mau Architecture website – here.
Visit the Infiniski website – here.
Photography © Antonio Corcuera
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cheyan on 01 Jul 2010 at 10:11 am #
From the outside it looks like the house that the first piggy build from straw but inside looks great
Ken on 01 Jul 2010 at 2:27 pm #
Not bad for a green house. Very well thought out and livable. Of course, it wouldn’t be nearly as nice without the pretty lady.
Cristina on 02 Jul 2010 at 4:57 am #
I like the interior, and the concept.
alberto on 02 Jul 2010 at 10:05 am #
I am only writing because this site usually shows excellent work.
In my opinion this particular project fails to execute a very interesting concept. It’s been 50 years since Moshe Safdie proposed and built a larger scale version, and I expected the ball to have moved forward in that period.
By the way, you published 26 photos of a tiny house and did not include the entrance?
I see why, from the floor plan. The architects’ obsession with symmetry (trying to find an “equal” volume to balance the kitchen) results in an improperly sized and located laundry.
I don’t like it when architects hide behind a legitimate and timely concept- recycling- to short-change the client with very poor architecture.
TW on 02 Jul 2010 at 3:58 pm #
Can we see more of this kind of stuff please?
Excellent project. Great to see an architect not just paying lip service to sustainability.
I love seeing what architects can do with waste material (containers, pallets etc). Sadly, the construction costs were probably more to do this than for a traditional build.
Would have loved to have see less ‘designed’ interior furnishings. Imagine if the concept had extended beyond the structure?
alberto – I assume you are talking about Moshe Safdies university inspired Habitat project from the 60′s? A little different to this project – Safdies was concerned about delvering affordable housing to the masses. This project is about delivering an individual sustainable house. Different idealogies.
alberto on 02 Jul 2010 at 9:07 pm #
Hello, TW, I did mean the Habitat in Montreal, even though Safdie did several other projects also based on the concept of a repetitive manufactured module. I never thought it had much to do with housing masses, though, I assumed he was just exploring the rich visual potential that could be achieved from industrialized building components.
The Manifesto house is fascinating in that it is born of three equally sized containers manipulated and reorganized to fulfill a client’s program. My problem is the use of fashionable language to describe it, and to the missed opportunities Safdie captured in the 60s.
One of these opportunities is the articulation of the large structural elements, but once the architect goes into the “house dressing and undressing” metaphor, that’s out. Another is the not-obvious (from drawings and photographs) use of the rooftop.
Due to the inherent structural qualities of containers- they’re designed to be stacked- I’m surprised the rooftop is not accessible (judging from the photos)and used for solar clothes drying, a hot water cistern, electrovoltaic panels, etc. My earlier comment about the laundry had to do with its location remote from where clothes are stored (bedroom area), and that I didn’t see a clothesline in a “sustainable” project.
Frankly, the only “sustainable” aspect of this project that I thought had real credibility was the reuse of marine containers. There are other ways to insulate and rustproof metal walls (ceramic paint adds R-20 to the surface), and it seems to me the use of recycled pallets was an ornamental pre-conception that was never questioned or value-engineered.
And then comes the topic of building type. The choice involved in making a free-standing house sustainable I assume to be circumstantial and not universal (their next client wanted a house and not an apartment building), since it is well known that low density housing consumes a geat deal more energy (to build and to maintain), municipal services, land, utilities, and road infrastructure, than multi-family housing. Saying any free-standing house is more “sustainable” than others which appear on Contemporist is like saying this private jet consumes less fuel than that one.
Anyway, not meaning to demean the genre, I am aware single family homes have traditionally been architects’ vehicles for self-expression and experimentation. This one does both, but let’s not throw around fashionable terms like “sustainable” and “manifesto” to elevate their status.
TW on 03 Jul 2010 at 5:14 pm #
alberto – I agree about the fashionable languge. But, hey, I’m just excited to see a real sustainable house on Contemporist so I am ignoring this element lol!
And the house DOES go beyond simple recycling – it uses insulation, cross ventilation and solar energy cleverly, it says it has 70% autonomy (I assume they are talking about energy use) and has an 85% recycled/eco content. All of the above pits this ahead of 90% of all new houses built today.
Placing the pallets on the exterior provide essential screening from the sun – necessary in the hot Chilean summer. And they say in winter they can open them up to heat the metal substructure. Maybe not so ornamental after all?
As for the roof and laundry, the house doesn’t need a third story so the roof is the place to hold solar panels, water storage etc. I’m not sure where else these things would be placed if not on the roof?
I’m not sure why the laundry is an issue. I consider a laundry a wet space so I would never place it near a bedroom. I associate laundrys with kitchens and bathrooms and they should be placed for easy access to outside. My own laundry is literally outside – about 10 metres away from my house!
And whilst I agree that multi-housing can be nore sustainable than single dwellings, the majority of people on this planet prefer to liv in single. So the more sustainable we can make this type of building, the better.
AP on 04 Jul 2010 at 11:55 pm #
I enjoy the interior of this house but I have a really hard time connecting to the exterior. While I feel that the pallets serve a practical purpose, shading in the summer and being able to move out of the way in the winter, I really can’t stand to look at them…but that is simply a personal, subjective opinion – so I can throw that one aside.
At that though – the idea that this house, as the narrative says, “dresses and undresses” itself, I wish I could see that concept inside more. The major way of seeing it is that the rafter are open in most areas, and the walls are finished. I think it could be gorgeous to make the house seem, almost, “unfinished” inside by extending pieces of finished ceiling material into spaces that have open rafters and the like.
A more than commendable effort on the part of the architect for his use of strategies in such a harsh climate.
Alex on 07 Jul 2010 at 9:18 am #
I love the interior. The Coffee table and the side shelf were made by gt2P, a Chilean studio of parametric design and architecture.