Aluminium House System
Kyushu, Japan
The Aluminium House System was developed by Riken Yamamoto & Fieldshop at the request of a manufacturer of aluminium furniture and precision machinery. It is a new mass-produced home that uses aluminium as the main structural material. In March 2004 the first prototype house was opened in Kyushu (southern Japan).
The initial objective in developing the project was to find a way of realizing a structural expression in aluminium that would not be possible using steel. The sectional shapes of extruded aluminium can be designed with great freedom. These sectional shapes are strong, have a unique beauty and an extremely high level of precision. Yamamoto & Fieldshop proposed a transparent structural wall consisting of cross-shaped extruded aluminium components, 70 mm in length. As the intention is mass-production, this is a prefabricated system wherein the structural walls are factory-made panels that are easily assembled on site with bolted connections. By avoiding on-site aluminium manufacture, the aim was to shorten construction time and lower costs.
The model house assumes a SOHO plan, for a person using their home as a workplace. The second floor has a ceiling height of 3600 mm and may become an office or studio, with a loft in the upper part. The ground floor contains the bedrooms and sanitary spaces. By reversing the ground and second floor, the ground floor can become a high ceiling office or shop. Because the 1200 mm module allows the structure to be freely increased or reduced in size, it is possible to adjust the building scale to accommodate functions such as an office or shop rather than remaining as a house. It copes easily with expansion and renovation. Furthermore, after dismantling the 1200 mm lattice panels, they may be re-used in another building without modification. As they may be used many times over, the user could lease only the number of wall and floor panels they need, and the assembling of houses or shops could become a new type of exchange flow.
This aluminium based house system fully demonstrates the cradle-to-cradle use of aluminium.