Our mission is to seek ways to bring the peoples of the Earth together in peace and harmony and improve their quality of life on the planet. It is hard to do this if the majority of humanity’s basic needs are not being met. Part of what we do is research into ways to improve and upgrade the human condition. We are about finding ways to feed the hungry and house the homeless and providing the knowledge we gain and the things we develop to the world for free.
At this point in time we lack some of necessary skills and staff to accomplish some of our goals. So, we are issuing a challenge to architects and architectural students around the world to come up with a generic design (complete blueprint) for a wall module that anyone can take and with it build an inexpensive habitat. Actually, the design is for 4 basic wall modules like some of the simple ones seen below.
Four basic designs, a door, a window, an open space connector to hold up the ceiling, and a solid wall; sound pretty simple doesn’t it. To make it a little more interesting we need the designs to be made out of basic materials like wood, steel, and concrete and they have to be stackable at least 3 to 5 floors which will require the design for the interconnecting floors and roof as well. We also encourage you to design the roof as a walkable/habitable area.
This may seem like a pretty simple design challenge that any architecture student could do, and we would agree. However, the end product(s) will be placed on our web site so that a basic module for a habitat design will be available to the world for free. The idea being that anyone can take these designs and build a habitat for a single family or a full blown arcology if you really stretch the concept a bit.
Part of the problem in the world is not just the lack of adequate housing in the world, but also the lack of quality housing in the world. Even with quality housing other problems remain which in time we will also address.
Right now we are focusing on one of our main goals whish is to provide housing for the homeless and to improve the quality of life for people everywhere. To provide individuals and/or whole communities with a basic module that can be used to create a simple habitat will go a long way toward us achieving that goal. So, lacking a staff architect or engineer, we are asking the architecture community to come up with ideas to help us reach our goal.
To make our challenge a little more interesting the doorways don’t have to be boringly square.
Nor, do the windows. The designs for these basic modules are limited only by your imagination. Please bear in mind that some of these designs may be used in third world countries where round windows may be hard to come by. There are no rules that say you can’t design several different versions of a given wall module; in fact we encourage you to do so.
Design Criteria:
The 4 basic wall modules as outlined above. Materials to be used: concrete, steel, and wood; extra points for use of native materials, bamboo, stone, brick, block, etc. The modular walls must be able to be stackable to at least 3 floors with 5 floors as our ideal height. Because roofs are generally wasted space we encourage designs where rooftops are used as a habitable green space.
Full blueprints are required; don’t just send us a picture of a wall. We need the connection detail between the walls (how they fit together). Floor/ceiling details, footings, minimum footprint for stability, a 5 floor building obviously needs a larger footprint than a single story dwelling, and any other details that would be needed to take the basic wall design and build a structure from the minimum (1 floor) to the maximum height (3 - 5 floors) that an individual or community may desire to build anywhere on the planet. All blueprints must be in an 11” x 17” standard AutoCAD format. Not everyone in the world can print the large blueprint formats, but they do stand a better chance at 11” x 17”. Also it is easier for us to convert your blueprints to a .jpg format which again also makes it easier for the rest of the world to print your blueprints. The rest of the world will still be able to download the AutoCAD file from our web site as well.
A Little Bit More
The design requirement is for a modular design so that any structure can be enlarged at a later time. While we want the ability for your designs to be taken and used as a single family dwelling, we do not believe that it is the best use ecologically. In deed, we believe that the single family home spread across the face of the planet is detrimental to the ultimate welfare of humanity and the environment of the planet. So we also challenge you to take these wall modules and with them design entire urban environments sometimes referred to as arcologies. Living organisms are 3 dimensional and so should be the urban environment. I personally prefer micro-communities to the grand designs of Paolo Soleri. Third world countries actually have to be able to afford to build what you design. Below is an example of what we are talking about.
In 1970 the world renowned architect Paolo Soleri began his now famous construction project of Arcosanti. Before Soleri began building the project he built something just as unique to house his construction workers. The Arcosanti Construction Camp provides a brief look into what can be done with basic wall module design.
The above is a simple example to give you an idea of what is possible for one must imagine entire communities designed around a single base wall module, in this case a concrete wall. There are no limits to what is possible but the designs need to be realistic, affordable, and easily buildable.
Before you start going hog-wild designing mini-arcologies I will require some of the infrastructure that would go with them; septic system, potable drinking water, etc. and various ecologically sound practices like rainwater collection, etc. No, you can’t just draw a picture and leave it at that. I have seen what happens when you don’t fill-in the blanks when it comes to design/build.
Only the best and most complete designs for each kind of material (wood, concrete, steel, etc.) will be permanently placed on our web site for the whole world to see and use. Of course names, web links and other appropriate credits will be given (free advertising for life).
While we do have a large amount of space there are still other goals we are aiming for like food production and safe potable water collection and filtration systems the designs of which we will also put on our web site. Then there is the medical equipment we hope to develop and educational tools the children of the world can use. Even though we have gigabytes of storage space from our web site host we do have to use it for other things which is why only the best and most complete designs will be displayed on our web site.
