DOMANI is an idea for living the future: an experimental prototype for regenerating the city.
DOMANI is the name of an experimental housing model, a simple architecture based by circular economy principles. A house with a design by layers, that can be assembled and disassembled, and with a structure that enhances the effectiveness of the compositional choices thanks to the efficiency of the technological choices.
National
Italy
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It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
2018-09-15
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: ROBERTA Last name: CASARINI Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: VIA CANTARANA, N.6 Town: REGGIO EMILIA Postal code: 42121 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 328 124 9701 E-mail:laboratorio@labarch.it Website:https://www.labarch.it/
Domani
Domani is the name of a house, a house for the future, winner of “ECOLUOGHI 2017/2018- Houses for sustainable living”, announced by the italian Ministry of the Environment, Territory and Sea Protection, by Associazione Mecenate 90 and by Unioncamere. Designed to regenerate the existing city, Domani starts from small and widespread steps, to create a new awareness in people, to create new habits to replace those that are leading the world into an impasse. We must prepare ourselves to live in a world with less resources, less energy available, where the only certainty is uncertainty: changes in ways of living and, consequently, in the ways of transforming the city will instead be certain and inevitable.
Cities must be redesigned to respond to the increase in population, the growing dissolution of the soil and to the modifications of life systems.
We have to think of densifying the city to reduce distances and the vehicle mobility needs, to recover unused spaces, to rethink urban landscapes and to reduce the energy impact on the environment.
We have to think of buildings as services connected to smart grids, where consumption is replaced by use, which together create a city:
- safer, capable of withstanding the new climate, to prolong the life of existing assets, to resist the uncertainty of tomorrow (earthquakes, floods, drought…);
-denser, with less consumption of virgin soil, to reduce travel and infrastructure, and improve people's lives;
-more fluid, capable of creating different types of spaces and ways of use in places that already exist, able to adapt with small intelligent changes where there are already buildings;
-more shared, with connections between the parts, to create a regenerative and distributive economy, to improve usability by creating living spaces in buildings.
Simple
Circular
Flexible
Living as a Service
Designing in layers
Effectiveness and efficiency.
Domani is an experimental housing prototype of 45 m2:
-Simple. It enhances the effectiveness of the compositional choices with the efficiency of the technological choices.
Consisting of modules of 1.80 x 5 ml at a height of 2.40 ml, built entirely off-site, brought to the construction site with trucks, lifted to a height with cranes and assembled together with mechanical connections. The external contact points are sealed with neoprene profiles, while the electrified tracks for the portable management of electricity pass inside. The module contains all the systems of the house: sanitary, water, drainage, VMC, heating with an innovative internal heat pump.
The modularity allows different variations of shape and size, which can adapt to different places and needs.
-Circular. It takes up ecosystems, which exploit the physics and raw materials available to effectively satisfy needs and promote energy and structural efficiency.
Built with lightweight dry stratified technologies that can be easily assembled and disassembled, it is not a static object, but designed according to the flows of air, water, light, sound, energy, raw materials and people.
Domani is made with steel technologies (light steel frame), the new frontier of light constructions capable of high resistance with limited use of material, to be placed on the static consolidation structure of the underlying building.
The insulation is made internally with thin heat-reflecting insulators and polyester panels obtained from the reconversion of plastic waste. The ventilated facade is covered with thermo-curved sheets of white Krion®: capable of very high solar reflection and UV resistance, with high antibacterial properties, and photocatalytic capabilities with the possibility of purifying, for each housing unit, the air that about 1000 people breathe in a year.
Changing the way of living.
Created as an image of the future, Domani is characterized by a pure form, with rounded corners that enhance continuity and compactness, a large white metal tube: a few signs to give identity and recognition. Two large windows delimit the living area, made up of a unitary space, where there are no functional subdivisions, but equipment and furnishings that can be used informally: different activities can take place at each point, a different idea of space that anticipates the changes of the future. A fluid space, where the service spaces are transformed into equipment: you open a door and you enter the toilet, you open another door and you enter the shower or another one and you enter the sink. A flexible space, interchangeable in its uses, according to the different life experiences of the inhabitants, revolutionizing the way of living in the house.
A space where systems follow people and not vice versa: electricity from electrified tracks, heat follows people instead of heating the room, natural light enters at any time of day thanks to the two large windows.
Volumetric additions
The possibility of intervening in the existing city with the addition of portions, today defined volumetric additions, opens up new scenarios where architecture, economy and inclusion meet each other: new ideas are needed to think of light, modular, demountable, transportable constructions and flexible, they are added discreetly to the built area to redesign the urban landscape, paying attention to resources, to be accessible in economic terms to all, to experience the city in an inclusive way.
Domani is designed to densify cities through "volumetric additions" on the roofs of existing buildings, as well as being used for high-quality living in the event of emergencies of any kind.
Flexibility, access to services otherwise out of budget for most users, the possibility of living in contexts in which it would be impossible to buy a house, as well as obviously the absence of extraordinary maintenance costs. An inclusive, beautiful, sustainable living: the attention for a more ethical living should not be thought of as limited only to the choice of materials, which are a consequence, but must turn to a new conception of living spaces, which in their simplicity are able to convey the need for change by transforming it into a habit.
Participation is caring
The double crisis underway, involving the environmental and social levels, raises fundamental questions on the importance of residential construction. Urban and social regeneration will be the working area for the city of tomorrow. Rethinking and regenerating buildings to create new spaces suitable for guaranteeing an adequate standard of living for the greatest number of people is one of the main objectives in the construction of this housing prototype. A model designed for the needs of the most fragile population, allowing them to experience the same opportunities as people who already have the physical, cultural and economic possibility to live life in a dignified way. The "gentle" approach to existing buildings, through a regenerative architecture that is at the same time technological, innovative and ecological, is an opportunity to do more and better with what exists, putting the inhabitants and the needs of the area first. The Domani housing prototype is a possibility to improve the architectural quality and the living spaces of economic and social housing, also operating on an ethical and social level to face a decline of urban places and spaces, which today seems unstoppable, investing above all on the needs of more fragile people. This architectural design model is projected towards a creative, inclusive, shared vision of the future, which believes that development is not in contrast with solidarity, and that growth cannot be separated from prospering in balance with ecosystems.
The Laboratorio di Architettura office, based in Reggio Emilia, is involved in projects and researches in the field of architectural design in addition to studies on the relation between design/construction and sustainability/energy.
The architectural firm has won several awards and competitions, among them: Residential “Casanova EA8 Parcel” Settlement Competition – Bolzano (First Prize – 2006), Sustainability Award (First Prize – 2006 and 2013), Legambiente Award (First Prize – 2012), Eco-Places 2013 – Rome (Winning Project) and Eco-Places 2018 – Award (Winning Project), XII Architecture and Interior Design Award 2019 (finalist), international award dedalo minosse 2019 - (reported).
A team of companies of international importance started to believe in something that doesn’t exist yet. They took the risk of experimentation, that is necessary to renew a world such static as the one of architecture. For the past decades in Italy we had a great lack of innovation in the sector of architecture and buildings: there is a real need for experimentation, investments and knowledge. The group of companies “DOMANI” provided all of these necessities.
The companies are:
- Costruire Leggero srl, they have a long experience in the steel frame construction
- Porcelanosa Grupo, a leading company in the area of ceramics and interior design, they patented Krion.
- Knauf, a leading company in the production of building material and dry construction system
- Schüco spa, a leader in the window frames innovation
- Alpac, they work on innovation on VMC and alternative heat systems
- Eubiq Europe, they invented a really interesting innovation about lighting system
- Vanoncini, experienced constructor in the dry construction system
- Artemide, Fantoni, La Cividina, leading companies in the sector of lighting and interior design
The main disciplines involved in the design and implementation of the project can be summarized in four distinct fields that have acted in a complementary and integrated way:
- architecture: the proposed construction methodologies lead to more efficient and economically convenient processes. Off-site construction allows, in the integrated and technological factory, every aspect of the supply chain, from design to construction, to be carried out directly, allowing you to produce more efficiently, with contained costs and with less waste.
- circular economy. Considering living as a service and orienting the production and consumption model towards the reuse, repair, reconditioning and recycling of existing materials and products for as long as possible, allows extending the life cycle of products, helping to reduce waste to a minimum and considering waste as value.
- social Sciences. The proposed approach, in which living is no longer understood as a good, but as a service to man, requires a new type of living, in which responsibilities within the community are repositioned in different balances from those used so far, in a perspective of sustainability and projection towards future generations.
- technology. Domani is a real house of the future in which there are no functional subdivisions, but informally usable equipment and furnishings, and where the choice of efficient technologies returns a completely sustainable and autonomous system. From the presence of electrified tracks that allow portable management of the current to the insertion of a concealed technology in the wall for heating and air conditioning, up to the integration of punctual Controlled Mechanical Ventilation systems for the exchange of indoor air, Domani evolves according to the flows of air, water, light, sound, energy and raw materials and people.
Change the rules of the game
We are experiencing a profound transformation process in which it is necessary to reconfigure the system of relationships that regulate our actions as individuals and as a community, activating inclusive and regenerative factors, which avoid proceeding by creating further inequalities, to think of a more welcoming city of tomorrow, beautiful, creative, versatile, circular. The urban landscape is primarily responsible for the impact of the human species on the planet and if we want to be effective in making choices between now and the future, it is precisely there that we urgently need to get involved. In fact, cities are not only places of living, but powerful creative devices «to activate the different present and explore the possible future».
We have to change the rules of the game: we have to innovate the design and construction processes in the construction sector. Rethinking the relationship of buildings with natural ecosystems, redesigning the relationships between domestic spaces and public places, mobility and production systems of components, for healthy, safe, regenerated cities: all this involves thinking of buildings and public spaces, not as goods but as services, to learn to "do with" what we have available.
Greater efficiency of buildings, greater effectiveness of design and construction systems, lower consumption of materials and raw materials, the possibility of easily updating the system, triggering new methods in a sector that requires continuous innovation, suggesting new ways of life, are the points more interesting of Domani.
Living as a service
Imagine, taking the straight line of the current economic system and bending it until it turns into a circle. We will have a system that works in a similar way to the cycles of nature, an economy that regenerates itself from the raw materials already used.
The exclusive ownership of the products is replaced by their use: living is no longer understood as a good, but as a service to man. This principle represents the innovative component of Domani and is developed in three points.
First. Assume the fact that ownership carries a liability. When we buy a house to live in, we take on the responsibility of managing, maintaining and disposing of the same asset. It is evident that the producer/manufacturer has no interest in innovating in these sectors because they no longer belong to him, but to the user. Responsibility must remain with the builder/producer/entrepreneur, affecting his own economic revenues.
Second. Create to regenerate and not regenerate to create. Think of regenerative design where waste is no longer a waste, green roofs that grow food and capture energy, buildings that sequester carbon dioxide, smart grids and energy communities that exchange energy, floors that absorb water, the right vehicle for every mobility distance.
Third. Thinking of waste as a value. When we recycle, only a fraction of the primary material is recovered: a process called downcycling, a dequalification of waste. A linear economy fix, which is like treating the symptoms of a disease rather than the causes. No building should be built without thinking in advance about how to recover or reuse materials. The building must be designed as a bank, a bank of materials, kept waiting to be reused. which at this point acquire a new value, real or perceived: a process defined as upcycling.
A good is static, a service is dynamic. Living as a service means that the user does not buy a good but a service, that the responsibility remains with the entrepreneur who gives the requested service. In this case it is in the entrepreneur's interest that the built space last as long as possible, that it is designed to be updated to the continuous changes taking place, that it is a living space capable of satisfying needs for as long as possible, that it is composed with reusable elements to maximize the residual value upon disassembly.
This scenario could represent a revolution comparable to the one that smartphones have generated in the digital field. The smartphone is, in fact, an integrated object that embodies many functions: it is a telephone, a watch, a diary, a computer, the internet, a game, music, a video, a tool for purchasing and will become many other things tomorrow.
Design in layers
To think of the building as a bank of materials, it is necessary to change the methods of designing and constructing the building itself. It is the idea of a design by layers, identified by the designer and recognizable by the user, simple, assembled and disassembled, modular for compatible functions. Each layer is a response to a need, has its own duration over time, has its own economic impact, can be changed when outdated or at the end of its life cycle.
A layered design is meant to last. Durability is synonymous with quality. Quality of the materials used and how they were composed: not all materials have the same duration and if the design separates and defines the layers, it allows them to be replaced at different times without the complete demolition of the building. But also, and above all, the quality of the architectural language, capable of lasting over time because it is recognized as an identity characterizing the urban landscape.
A layered design is meant to change. If it is in the investor's interest that the building lasts as long as possible, its design will be designed to be easily changed to adapt to new conditions, changes and needs. To be explicit, we have to think of the building as software. Contrary to the hardware which has very limited possibilities of variation without upsetting the system or even replacing it, the software can be easily updated to satisfy new potentialities.
A layered design is meant to live. Culture of necessity and culture of desires are on two different levels. Thinking of living as a dimension for living, where what we have is no longer predominant with respect to the quality of life that space can offer us, represents the first step in planning living not as a good but as a service to people, for their well-being, for their needs, a means to live their lives to the fullest.
Density and quality of life.
Rethinking, regenerating, reusing the buildings and spaces of the city to create new places and spaces suitable for guaranteeing an adequate standard of living for the greatest number of people: the city of tomorrow will be significantly different from the current one.
On a planet with 9.6 billion people in 2050, 68% of whom will live in cities, we must prepare ourselves to live in a world with fewer resources, less energy available, where the only certainty is uncertainty: changes in ways of living will be certain and inevitable and, consequently, in the ways of transformation of the city.
Designing architecture will mainly concern the architectural, energetic, structural, social regeneration of the existing. Cities, a destination for migration and in tumultuous growth, will have to be rethought, to respond to the increase in population, the growing dissolution of the soil, the modifications of the ways of life. We can therefore think of densifying the city to reduce distances, the needs for vehicular mobility, recover unused spaces, rethink urban landscapes, reduce the energy impact on the environment.
