6 prefab boxes make a passive house | Alventosa Morell Arquitectes

This small family house in Spain is composed of six wooden boxes joined together. Its design was the result of two significant challenges. As is often the case, the budget was very tight, but these clients also wanted their new home to be completed within four months. Alventosa Morell Arquitectes decided that a prefab approach was the best way to deliver the small house on time and on budget, designing it as a cluster of modules sized for delivery by truck.

The six wooden boxes arrived at the site prefinished. Once set in place on the concrete slab, they were joined by glass walls and a common roof. The six modules house the three bedrooms, the living room, the kitchen and bathroom, and a utility/storage room. The spaces between the modules became the dining room, an open study, and a shelf-lined corridor connecting the social zone to the private spaces. Altogether the floor plan is 111 m² (1,195 ft²). Half a dozen glass doors provide easy access to the yard as well as natural ventilation.

The architects designed the house as a Passivhaus. Taking advantage of the sun for heating and with high levels of thermal insulation, the house uses just a quarter the energy to heat as a traditional house. Using locally-sourced wood and recycled cellulose insulation also helped reduce the home’s ecological impact.

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Photographs by Adrià Goula, courtesy of Alventosa Morell Arquitectes. Via Plataforma Arquitectura.

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