Our submission for the Europan 10 competition offered us an opportunity to extend a democratic design agenda, innovative housing ideas, and computational methodology to an urban site near Aarhus and Denmark. In testing the Studio’s ESP tools (see esp-sim.org); the team investigated an enabled construction process using prefabricated components assembled by the community working as a collaborative team alongside professionals. The ultimate goal – to build a sustainable community that endures long after construction has completed – is suggestively achieved by effective engagement with early adopter community members at the concept design stage, using web 2.0 technologies and online virtual environments to visualise design scenarios, whilst continuously growing the community before, during, and after construction.
The homes we envisaged were to be designed through identification of common goals, and consensus as to the appropriate distribution of privately owned and shared space. All dwellings are gathered around a semi-public space shared between 3-4 households. Private outdoor space is provided on rooftops and public/private terraces look out onto a shared public realm. All the proposed dwellings are designed to Passivhaus® standards, flexible and extendable so that inhabitants can develop their homes over an extended period of time following a ‘pattern book’ of options, ensuring high performance construction is maintained.
