Wikihouse Case Study Engineering Research Paper

Wikihouse Case Study
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January 9, 2019
Introduction
Over the years, engineers and architects have sought out to build moe efficient homes that are energy and resource efficient. These new conventional designs have revolutionized the way that people live, from that of a traditional brick and mortar house, to those which focus on sustainability, with the help of new tools and technologies. One example of this new innovative design is the Microhouse. Just as the name implies, the Microhouse is small in size since it is designed to only have a single bedroom. It is also modular so any additional need and capabilities of the owners could just be added into an existing microhouse, with great efficiency. This design is the reason why the Microhouse prides itself with high-efficiency both in terms of building, designing, and living. To further understand the importance of these design, the next section would discuss about the features of this design. It would include both an analysis of the context why it was built as well as a graphical analysis of the structure. All in all, the author believes that Microhouses would help solve or alleviate the problems of lack of housing in the urban areas.
Context
Socio-Political and Economic Background
It is said that this day, the average population density in metropolitan areas is already at 27,000 people per square miles CITATION Uni17 \l 1033 (University of Michigan - Center for Sustainable Systems, 2017). This is much higher as compared to the ideal population density which is 500-600 individuals per square mile. This is not even considering that these numbers are much higher in less developed countries, which makes the provision of basic services more difficult for them. Take for example, one of the most common necessities that are lacking due to overpopulation within the cities – housing. In order to find better opportunities, millions of people flock within the cities, and establish their own homes within it. However, due to the high-cost of living and density of the population, most ends up being homeless or ‘squatting’ on spaces that they do not own CITATION Ars16 \l 1033 (Arslan, Durmus, Hirka, & Duman, 2016). Since squatting has been a major problem in almost every city around the world, a new and innovative solution such as micro houses that deals with the high-price of real estate and lack of spaces for living, would help alleviate these problems.
Microhouses
As stated earlier, the Microhouse features a single-bedroom structure that is highly-efficient. On the one hand, this efficiency could be seen in the building process. Before the turn of the century, houses are either built with stones, concrete, or any other heavy materials. This is to ensure that the structures built are strong enough to withstand weather conditions and to provide security for its residents CITATION Heg17 \l 1033 (Hegger, Drexler, & Zeumer, 2017). In turn, using lightweight materials increases the residents’ risks towards these vulnerabilities, at the expense of lower building costs. This is not yet taking into account the amount of land area needed to build single- or two-storey structures, which is ye...