A Highly Sustainable Timber-Cork Modular System for Lightweight Temporary Housing

Abstract

In recent years, global society has been subjected to great change due to unpredictable events such as pandemics, migrant flow, urban homeless, wars, and natural disasters. There has been an increased demand for fast and easily constructed buildings characterized by limited space and used for a limited time, modular and flexible self-assembly homes that are reusable without compromising comfort and environmental sustainability. A highly sustainable timber-cork modular system for lightweight temporary housing (LTH) is proposed in this paper. The structure of the proposed LTH was designed as a succession of modular timber portal frames composed of spruce boards hinged together. The concept of the prototype was a full modular shelter. It was possible to interchange every piece of the building, the structural elements, and the walls with each other. Due to the modularity of the elements of which the shelter was composed, this system could offer different solutions to the events above. The proposed LTH was analyzed in terms of its structural, thermal, and environmental performance. The structural system is very reminiscent of the platform frame, characterized by a light load-bearing frame consisting of solid timber uprights and crosspieces connected to the internal frame by means of a mechanical connection. The structural FEM analysis highlighted the structure’s capacity to withstand wind with a velocity of 72 m·s-1, corresponding to the F3 of the enhanced Fujita Scale (EF Scale) of tornado damage intensity. The thermal analysis highlighted a yearly energy use of 430.49 kWh to maintain a set-point temperature indoors of 20-26°C compared with a yearly energy use of 625.93 kWh for a common container house (CH) with the same dimensions under the same environmental conditions. Finally, a Life Cycle Analysis comparison between the proposed LTH and the CH was carried out by means of the One Click LCA software. Two different scenarios of service life were considered: one of 10 years and the other of 5 years. The results highlighted the higher sustainability of the proposed LTH than that of the CH for the required service life (Req SL) period. In particular, the calculated greenhouse gas emissions of the LTH (3.52ž103 kgCO2 eq) were less than 1/2 of the gas emissions of the CH (8.53ž103) for a Req SL of 10 years and about 1/3 for a Req SL of 5 years. Furthermore, the LTH showed a value of biogenic carbon storage (7.76E2 kgCO2) about 6 times bigger than the temporary house container (1.31E2 kgCO2). Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2022-08-10-020 Full Text: PDF

The Potential Contribution of Modular Volumetric Timber Buildings to Circular Construction: A State-of-the-Art Review Based on Literature and 60 Case Studies

“…The four-sided 3D timber module was created by Barreca et al, and it has a length and height of 3.14 m. Each panelised element is the same width as the modular unit, measuring 0.9 m. A room can be made up of three units, and the wet module can be made up of two units. According to the findings, the biochar storage value of this module is approximately six times that of a temporary housing container [51]. Horizontal floors and ceilings, vertical walls are examples of two-dimensional panel elements, as seen in Figure 4a-c.…”

Configuration Optimization for Sustainable Temporary Houses Employing BIM Procedure

“…The temporary house consists of structural elements, the "portal" [25], and a row of multilayer agglomerated cork panels used for the walls and roof [26]. Due to the modularity of compositional elements of the house, this system could create different solutions: the minor unit named 1M, and another configuration such as the service technological unit 2M or housing unit 5M [27], as shown in Figure 1. The strong modular characteristic of the proposed temporary house and its construction, dictated by well-defined rules, has made it possible to transpose these rules in an automated way.…”

“…The usage time is one of the most important elements in defining the characteristics of the house. Three possible time-of-use bands have been envisaged, divided into short duration, if the temporary house is used for a period of one week at most; medium duration, referring to a time of use ranging from two to four weeks; and long duration, for cases in which the time of use is more than a month [27]. The dimension of the house can be defined depending on the type and number of recipients, the activity carried out and the time of use.…”

“…By using the DesignBuilder ® plugin in Revit ® , it is possible to export the volume and the rooms into the software (Figure 15). Since both the stratigraphy and the characteristics of the vertical and horizontal partitions are known from previous studies [27], it is easy to analyze the energy performance of the temporary house. The software allows for customized configuration of the stratigraphy and heat transmission.…”

Enhancing Comfort in Tropical Institutional Buildings: Integrating Thermal, Acoustic and Visual Performance with a Unified Index

“…The building sector in India consumes around 35% of the total energy, with an annual increase of 8%. Various techniques and methods are being developed to address this issue [10][11][12]. The structure's use phase, which includes all amenities for the users' maximum comfort, accounts for approximately 73% of total building energy [13][14][15][16].…”