SHAPE - Micro Housing
Competition
The key driver behind SHAPE is to provide a sustainable and adaptable framework for life. This new concept of housing will provide the means to adapt, expand and subtract your home as your life changes. Factory assembled, customer specific design is not site specific, it adapts to suit all sites. An unlimited range of modules, components and accessories means there is no need to move house, your house moves with you.
SHAPE is a timber modular, flexible and agile, factory assembled housing system. Owners can choose from a range of components and a wide selection of finishes to design their ideal home that can then be delivered and constructed on site within a matter of days.
The SHAPE project was our entry to the 'Micro Living Revolution' ideas competition run by Eleven Magazine in conjunction with BETA Housing Manchester.
Factory Made
Each component is assembled off-site in a state-of-the-art factory, reducing the overall construction time on-site and maintaining exacting quality levels. The components can be bought and added-to over time creating agile homes that can adapt and change to suit their owner’s changing needs.
High performance Passivhaus envelope: built in factory-tested conditions, air-tightness and energy efficiency can be guaranteed. Modular units constructed in mass cross-laminated timber are designed to ensure cross-ventilation, with triple glazed, low u-value window and door components as standard
Sustainable
The modular design ensures zero-waste, with all cross-laminated timber off-cuts re-used in the design: kitchen worktops, built-in storage, bike racks etc. The CLT structure is naturally low-carbon and actually absorbs carbon dioxide across its life.
When purchasing your adaptable abode, a carbon off-setting tax is added - based on a calculation of how many trees went into your CLT home, you pay to replant double the number of trees. With each SHAPE home built, a new one is planted.
Smart living
Smart Metering is installed for utilities and life functions; Water usage, electricity usage, electricity production from PVs and turbines, air quality, CO2 levels, sleeping environment, movement.
Indoor environmental quality monitors linked to mobile phone apps monitor the movement and health of occupants and make people aware of energy use. Owners can measure and benchmark environmental conditions within their homes and make healthier choices based on the collected data and create indoor settings that suit their needs.
Health and wellbeing
Colours and internal timber finishes are used extensively to promote balance, well-being and relieve stress and anxiety. Good quality and well-designed lighting contributes to the well-being of its occupants.
Living walls and green roofs are available as part of the component selection. Carefully selected planting across each home and development will improve air quality, reduce the urban heat effect and offer shade in the summer months.
Our Team
- Jamie Agnew
- Philip Dring
- Chris Mannings
