In order to keep costs low and to meet the budgetary needs of the client, our team chose early on to design the house using a prefabricated panel system for construction. Not only did this allow for reduced costs when compared to traditional stick framing, it allowed for us to have more control over the assemblies of the construction. This resulted in the building envelope efficiency we needed to create the NET+ design.
Before any construction, the team used a Building Information Modeling (BIM) software to manage the process of planning and designing the panels. Overall, there are 20 exterior wall panels, 22 roof panels, and 12 interior wall panels that the team had planned on prefabricating at APDesign’s off-campus fabrication shop and were initially scheduled to be finished by the end of the spring of 2020. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the campus shutdowns that occurred, construction on the panes has been halted.
Before the campus shutdown, the team was able to completely frame 12 of the 20 exterior wall panels in less than a week. This gives the team hope that once the pandemic is over and restrictions on gatherings are lifted, that the remaining panels can be finished in a timely manner and get the project back on track.
The insulation and construction methods the team used will result in the home using substantially less energy than traditional new construction. This, pared with the overall design of the home, will produce a new type of home that has more to offer than current housing trends; higher quality spaces with better natural lighting, better thermal efficiency that lessens the loads on heating and cooling systems, and better space planning for a home that functions far better for its residents than some newly constructed house built using today’s techniques.
Overall, the design of this home is about creating something that betters the lives of its users in all facets of life, not just the financial and economic ones.
The Net Positive Studio 