Cellular habitat Mobile and modular building
- Year2016
- Location-
What now, what new technologies are available or are becoming available?; How they will change the ways in which buildings are designed in the future? What is pretended of buildings of tomorrow? Any major project in extreme locations, such as outer space or ocean platforms, involves long periods of technological development, design and planning for implementation and fund-raising. They spend years since the gestation of the project to its realization and more years even though these infrastructures need to be updated, expanded or replaced by more efficient new ones. The need for technology upgrades, expansion of storage areas or stay for more staff or the incorporation of new tools and equipment is inevitable. We are faced with an inability of these structures to be flexible and able to respond to updates without the need to reformulate the whole structure.
It is important that these projects include more efficient concepts of flexibility in order to accompany the changes in real time as they happen. The idea of absolute flexibility aims to prevent technological mismatching. It is difficult to know today what kind of technologies we will need or will want to incorporate in ten years to our most advanced research structures. Mobility and flexibility offer the possibility of more efficient use of the building during day to day use, and additional life after the initial function is completed.
Today most NASA missions are dealing with technical maintenance of this type, therefore, would not it be much more productive and efficient to dedicate these missions, time and capital to the actual exploration of the universe and not the maintenance of old, heavy and inflexible structures?
As an architect my concern is the creation of spaces that enable the development of different human activities; that enhance and not allowing constructions to be an obstacle to their free and changing development over time. I suggest a modular, flexible and transportable construction system that simplifies this task. Composing a lasting and timeless matrix on which work today and tomorrow's unknown activities can be made.
A structure that does not make references to a typological particular condition, as defined, specific, static space; but intends to adapt and respond using design and technology to the different uses that the user requires. A basic cell that provides possibilities for clustering, growth, updating and reformulation of its possible uses, such as fluid, open space, continuous; program decisions allowing variable and transformable character quickly and effectively on the demands of the moment way.
Relying on the creative user without necessarily depend on the complex relationships between the agents (designer, specialists, builders, suppliers) to solve a housing, temporary, emergency or permanent situation.