4 New building system



THE THEORY OF THE PRODUCTION OF ARCHITECTURAL SPACE – A NEW BUILDING SYSTEM


A great part of the population on earth is living under very bad circumstances. Many do not even have a shelter. The need of dwellings is enormous. A great quantity of dwellings have to be built and to be built in a cheap way, and not in an old-fashioned one with expensive constructions. In fact most of the dwellings are still built on-site. The acute building need of the developing countries should be satisfied by using more efficient methods, that make it possible to produce more buildings to the same cost as before.


Transportation costs have to be limited. Therefor local materials must be used as much as possible. Using prefabricated elements produced in field factories is one way to minimize transports. Most of the production can be done in a factory under good working conditions.

The resources of the globe are limited. In most countries you should not build in wood. We need the forests for the climate of the earth. Lack of energy will be a reality in a very short time. For that reason you should not either use building materials that need a lot of energy to produce – e. i. roasted bricks and aluminium. On the other hand, if you apply a carefully prepared building method many materials and components can be recycled and used over again. In the future new materials, e. i. silicon based materials and composites, can be manufactured and replace traditional ones. Today however, concrete and light concrete are the best alternatives.


The hereby introduced building system satisfies all the above described needs. It is a result of decades of studies ended up by a publication as a research project at the department of Architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology (RIT) in Stockholm, Sweden, 1997. The building system makes it possible to bring about dwellings in an economic and simple way.


The architectural idea presented, shows that a great variety of solutions is possible to attain within the system. It also shows that it is possible to shape dwellings with qualities for good living conditions.

This building system is a good way to solve the giant need of dwellings for people especially for the developing countries. Read the whole theory.


Göran Ervin Schömer