3 in 1 Housing

3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography

3 IN 1 HOUSING

Street Monkey Architects

LEAD ARCHITECT
Cage Copher

CATEGORY
Housing

LOCATION
Upplands Väsby, Sweden

AREA
2550 m²

VENTILATION
Exengo, Wojtek Banda

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Konar

YEAR
2016

BUILDER
Ingrid Westman

MODULE FABRICATION
Wieslaw Olowski, Jarek Wasielewski, Elmot

ELECTRICITY
Dan Purra, Exengo

MANUFACTURERS
Ruukki, Tarkett, Fermacell, Robert McNeel & Associates, Vetrex

Text description provided by architect.

Many of our projects at street monkey architects are designed for off-site fabrication.

3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography
3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography
3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography

Simply put, these projects are customized container construction, where the modules arrive to the site with finished walls, bathrooms and kitchens. The facades are finished on site after assembly.

This method of construction is easily transferrable to different sites because so much of the work is completed in a factory.

3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography
3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography

So, when a design sells well, the client inevitably wants to use it again. As an architect who feels a responsibility to design for context, this is a challenge.

Our first row-house project was within commuting distance to Stockholm in a city called upplands väsby. The project is composed of 7 row-houses and they sold out in less than two weeks.

3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography
3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography

It was built with passive house principles and solar panels, which make it extremely energy efficient and, as a result, it won a sustainability award from the municipality.

So, it is not surprising that the client wanted to duplicate it in another location. The other location turned out to be örebro, Sweden and it was more urban site than the one in upplands väsby.

3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography
3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography

It was also a corner lot in contrast to the upplands väsby site which was flanked by a park and a forest. We wanted to design for this change without changing the construction of the prefabricated modules.

We did so by customizing the roof and by using the same façade materials in different ways. The result gave us 3 versions of the same house.

3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography
3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography

In the park setting, we lowered the roof to soften the volume and we used white plaster and wood ribs over steel for the facades.

In the urban setting, we made the roof higher to frame the street and to hold a stronger position against the taller buildings on the same block.

3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography
3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography

The facades were made with the same combination of wood, steel, and plaster, but the steel was left exposed this time and used more often.

3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography
3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography

In the örebro project, the materials follow the orientation, so east-west facades are clad in white plaster and north-south facades are clad in steel or steel with wood lattice.

3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography
3 in 1 Housing
© Mattias Hamrén Photography

The result is 3 different interpretations of exactly the same interior. The benefits of off-site production and repetition are reaped but the project is still contextualized.


3 in 1 Housing
Site Plan - Väsby
3 in 1 Housing
Site Plan - Örebro
3 in 1 Housing
Typical Plan
3 in 1 Housing
Diagram