WELCOME IN C-HIVE
CONCEPT
Co-living
When people talk about co-living, it can be related to colocation. You have your own private space for sleeping and then you share the rest. For money purposes, or to have someone to live with, or to just think more sustainable, this principle can lead to many benefits. The sociological aspect of co-living can induce a magnificent shared experience with the people you are living with. You will be able to meet and live in the same space, it’s a combination of sharing and living.
During those times we are in 2020, social needs can feel more important to many of us. By co-living with someone, you can get your social dose every day even though you stay at home.
Co-working
For us, this principle is something that people are doing every day by meeting in coffee shops, libraries, schools, and offices. You are meeting in a similar area with people you can have interaction with (or not) and you work on your tasks. Co-working not only means working in the same space but also working together in a team. We actually are co-working on this project for the Solar Decathlon 2021. The notion can be vast but this is how we envision it.
Lately, co-working took a different meaning with online interaction. Even though if you are eligible for the principle of co-living,
co-working in a shared space is fundamental and you can discover it in C-hive.
... As live. The idea is to get access to resting areas, cooking and eating spaces, and bathroom. The three essentials zones to create proper housing. Humans have vital needs and need some comfort that can be fulfilled by these elements.
... In your own home. If you have your own company or you work from home you get a space for that in C-hive. With flexibility and accessibility, co-working and meeting are promoted and easier. This area can also be transformed for the next function.
... Friends, family, or strangers! Social life is important and having enough space to receive people in your own home is therefore fundamental. From a common area to have dinner to free space to create a dancefloor, you get all you need in C-hive.
...REPEAT !
ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPT
The concept of growing
The task of designing the project for the Solar Decathlon 2021 Competition was focusing on an extension on the rooftop. The first thought went to the concept of a mossy tree trunk, mushrooms sprouting out of the ground, and a sense of something new growing on top of something old.
Growing: «increase in size or importance of something.»
Synonyms: «extension, widening, thickening, broadening, swelling, magnification, sprouting, blooming, flourishing. thriving, escalation, buildout, or spreading.»
The reflection has started through the metaphor of the tree. The trunk is seen as providing stability and carrying branches, the bark serves as protection, and the leaf canopy brings everything together.
Translated into the design, it means that the development will be done around a wall system that binds and carries everything while also having an interior finish that emphasizes the upward movement and a sense of growing beyond.
On top of the walls sits the roof which flows and protrudes beyond the edges providing shelter from both rain and sun. the design creates a contrast between a more ordered exterior with a facade made out of birch bark and an organic interior providing a sense of protectedness and warmth.
The building design focuses on the integration of the urban environment on the roof top creating both vertical and horizontal interactions.
The horizontal connection is created through different visual contact with the surrounding at various levels: the sky, rooftop, and the streets below.
The vertical connection is enhanced by adding different fuctions to the building and integrating with the urban mobility and energy system where the building acts as a collective hub of resources.
This is mainly achieved through solar integration and water management systems, possibly in the neighbourhood.
The building is designed to function on solar energy source with integrated solar panels on the roof.
During summer the excess energy produced will be sold to the grid system.
During winter when the building might need electricity, it would be bought from the grid without buying more than what have sold to keep a neutral balance.
A charging station in the neighbouring parking lot will provide energy for sustainable mobility solutions. This will be supplied by the building production, it will become a central energy hub for the quarter.
The roof functions not only as shelter, but the design enables for water collection.The rain water is collected and filtered to be used as secondary water source (non drinkable. The the drinking water is linked to the municipal water system.
UNIT DESIGN
Display unit
The display unit functions as an open plan apartment with generous spaces for living, working, and dining all together in one double-height space whilst the more private areas such as bedroom and bathroom are more enclosed and intimate spaces. A mezzanine floor provides additional areas for working at home or creating a studio space.
The construction system is based on stackable wall blacks combined with tension rods for post-tensioning which ties the roof, walls, and floor together.
3D-printed model
The studio that has worked on this project was using 3D printing method to evaluate their proposal as it is going to be the way of producing the final building.
The scales of the models were varying between 1:20 and 1:50 to allows a space understanding and a system research to verify the textures and assembly methods.
FULL BUILDING
More coming soon...
REFERENCE SITE
The Annedal quarter is located South of the city center. Chalmers University is located 20 minutes walking distance to the East of the district and Sahlgrenska (university hospital) is located to the South of it. The quarter is situated close to the Haga district, a very attractive and cultural area of Gothenburg. The city park is the geographical western border of the quarter. Also, the main transport knots are closeby making the area well-connected to various areas of the city. Several tram lines delimit the border of the quarter, in the North-Western and in the South-Eastern parts. There are two tram stops nearby the site, these connect the site to the rest of the city. Bus stops are spread around the quarters’ borders, these bus lines offer quick connections to the city center and to further destinations within the city borders. On the western border of the quarter are situated two express bus lines, connecting to further areas and villages. No bus stops are located directly next to the plot, however there are about 10 bus and tram stops in the area. The city offers several recharging stations for electric cars, several of them are located within the quarter and next to the plot. Gothenburg has a dense bicycle lane network, offering a safe separation from traffic. There is also a large network of city bikes, that can be rented for 30min for free. These are also well inter-connected, making traveling by bike easy in the city. Several of these bike stations can be found in the North-Western part of the quarter, near the city center. Electric scooter devices are also very accessible, especially near the city center. The city also has several taxi companies offering services within the entire city. There are many single households in the area and next to the plot there is an elderly home. In the neighborhood, one can find most of the necessary services, shops, restaurants, post office, and bank. Most companies here are commercial. In the quarter of the plot, there are two food stores, one post office, one second-hand store, and one restaurant/café. There is also a school and a kindergarten near the plot.
URBAN CONCEPT
The quarter is located South of the city center. It is a neighborhood containing multifunctional buildings like services, schools, churches and residential buildings. There are many single households in the area. In the quarter one can find most of the necessary services, shops, restaurants, post office and bank. Most companies here are commercial. Anneberg has a considerable amount of schools of all types, preschools, primary schools and adult education. This makes the quarter attractive. The quarter also offers a few historical buildings that are now hosting educational and/or cultural activities. Anneberg offers a good mix of commercial and service buildings to make the area active, creating social development opportunities.
The green spaces and the main connections are sub-dividing the quarter.
The district has an important amount of pedestrian paths (both walkways next to roads and walking paths in green areas). There are quite some level differences within the quarter, with an important amount of stairs linking the area together. The plot surroundings however are on the same level thus offering good accessibility.
There are also bike lanes present, however the bike lane network is rather developed on the border of the neighborhood, near bigger roads. This enables to give more direct access and reduces travelling time. Bike rental services are available in the quarter. Hereby, the city encourages biking. Gothenburg has a very accessible and efficient bike network, the lanes are well lay-outed and user-friendly.
Gothenburg city has already a well-developed public mobility structure. In the close surrounding of our SDE building are passing by 2 tramlines and 1 busline. This gives good mobility possibilities in different directions and connections to the city network. The bike network is also very dense, and the city has a bike rental system called « Styr & Ställ » rented with a phone app.
For our mobility concept it seems relevant to work with green electric mobility, that is gaining popularity nowadays, and investigate how electric mobility can be used in a climate-neutral way.
The SDE building has the possibility of becoming an energy Hub, providing energy both for the building and for urban mobility. Using PV’s as an energy source in housing projects often raises the question of efficiency and energy losses. In this case, PV’s are producing more energy than the building consumes, and there are conflicts between offer and demand as most energy is produced during daytime, when the house is empty. Linking urban mobility to the energy production on-site gives the opportunity to store energy in the electric vehicles. by this, no big batteries are needed, reducing the climate impact of the PV’s considerably
The SDE building could become part of a larger mobility hub system, where different knots are interconnected. Hereby, several locations in the city can offer e-mobility stations, connecting back to the SDE building. In this way, our urban mobilty concept can, at the image of the city bikes of Gothenburg, develop towards an e-mobility network offering good alternatives to cars. Introducing e-mobility that is linked to PV power is a good opportunity for the city to lower its environmental footprint, striving towards carbon neutrality.
Our plot is located close to the two main university campusses, giving a good opportunity to integrate the urban concept into the university network.