Simon Needham

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CASE STUDY BRIEF The case study house must be conceived within the spirit of the contemporary home and the future. It must show effort in moving past traditional techniques and materials by experimenting with new ones and their applications. The case study home should be cost effective and sustainable to the appropriate degree. Recycled or responsibly sourced materials may keep cost down and make it more sustainable.

The ability for mass production/prefabrication is necessary. The architect must consider how to copy the house without making it repetitive. There is importance on there being no loss of identity, providing adaptability and flexibility for the user.

It needs to be well suited to the Midwest climate, yet workable to a variety of sites.

Parts of the house should be flexible enough to create new spaces. This will create differences in the case study house once repeated by letting the resident decide what the best fit is for the space. This house must give the residents the ability to work from home. Lighting, materiality, and color may also be a means to render the house differently to create new identity for each residence. The architect should consider a modular home which allows for alternate configurations of elements and differences in scale. A living, breathing, adaptable home is the ultimate goal to give the client a fully custom home through the case study process.

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H- 01 The first option from the SNAP! homes catalogue, H-01, is a single-story home comprised of multiple precast concrete modules with a layer of insulation in between the concrete. These size of these modules allow them to fit on a trailer bed, which can be trucked to site from a local precaster, reducing the amount of imported materials. Each module encases a programmatic element that the user may purchase or omit from their home. After the modules are chosen, users may swap the layout orientation of the modules, creating customized living spaces taylored to the user’s preference. Once the modules are chosen, the user picks the interior partition wall colors, adding another layer to the customization of the home. After the home is ordered, it is trucked to site and assembled quickly, as all of the interior elements have already been installed. The homes range from just over 400 sq. ft. up to just under 1000 sq. ft.

H- 02 The second option from the SNAP! homes catalogue, H-02, is a double-story home comprised of multiple precast concrete modules with a layer of insulation in between the concrete. These size of these modules allow them to fit on a trailer bed, which can be trucked to site from a local precaster, reducing the amount of imported materials. Each module encases a programmatic element that the user may purchase or omit from their home. After the modules are chosen, users may swap the layout orientation of the modules, creating customized living spaces taylored to the user’s preference. Once the modules are chosen, the user picks the interior partition wall colors, adding another layer to the customization of the home. After the home is ordered, it is trucked to site and assembled quickly, as all of the interior elements have already been installed. The homes range from just under 1000 sq. ft. up to 1750 sq. ft.

P- 01 The last option from the SNAP! homes catalogue is the host module and mobile pod. The host module is formed from precast concrete modules. This will contain the necessities for living (not found in the mobile pod) such as water, electric, bathrooms, a kitchen, and living area. This structure gives the ability for 6 pods to be hosted at once by easily snapping them into place. The mobile pod contains the user’s sleep and work spaces with ample personal storage in the thick wall. The exterior is clad in corrugated metal, while the interior walls contain CNC milled sanded plywood panels that aid in dampening sound from the exterior. This allows for a peaceful interior as a quiet space is necessary for work sessions and sleeping. With the mobile pod, the user may choose to move their pod to a new host location as they please, not getting tied down to the same scenery or setting.