Everhouse is the result of a 1 prize in the competition Sunshine House on the development and construction of a small house based on passive regulation. Everhouse is developed for Domea in cooperation with Dissing+Weitling , KLH solid wood and Grontmij Carl Bro . Everhouse received honourable mention from Kolding municipality.
Everhouse breaks with conventional notions of industrially produced housing. Prefabricated buildings are usually either delivered as room-sized elements or planar elements. Everhouse combines the two principles by building a core installation of two room-sized elements, while the rest of the house is formed by the planar elements. The core includes bathroom, kitchen, stairs and circulation areas. It is physically connected to all living spaces and almost all installations can be assembled and tested off site. The layout provides a great freedom in the use of the house. The large rooms toward the south can be used as they are or be divided into different combinations to the residents’ changing needs. The three lofts in the bedrooms increase the opportunities for varied use.
The architectural strength of the layout is a composition with a strong identity, defined with a densely packed core as a prefabricated module to the north, containing serving functions as well as all installations which demands certified installers (domestic water, drains, ventilation system, electrical connections and outlets, internet, phone and TV connections) and an adjacent large, open space for flexible living needs to the south, optimized according to the principles of passive-housing technology, where the living areas with large windows are placed.
Lifecycle
A gentle building process is introduced, movingsurface soil where the house is to be placed and arranging it in two rims on each side prepare the site. This creates a depressed area that will later serve as a ventilated plenum under the house. This area is also used for the heavy traffic during the insertion of the screw piles and placing of the core modules. This strategy is leaving the garden areas mainly untouched and reducing later need for reconditioning of the soil. The core elements are placed first, as they are stabilizing the construction, followed by the planar elements.
Section. The triangular beams carrying the roof makes the erection of dry-lining partitions a breeze.
Ground floor. The lower floor of the core area contains the entrance, the kitchen, bathroom and storage area. The open space towards the garden leaves many different options open for the use of the living area, were the in-line kitchen unobtrusively opens the plan to a variety of furniture lay-outs. The entire room opens towards the terrace.
Upper floor. The upper floor of the core area contains another bathroom as well as the corridor that serves as a flexible space, usable for the daily activities of ironing and laundry, but also could double as a work area. The main layout, combined with the bed lofts on top of the core, creates an array of spatial configurations and possible flexibility from three small bedrooms to one large room.
Photograph from north-west.
