arthur casas conceives self-sufficient crowdsourced home for ENEL

arthur casas conceives self-sufficient crowdsourced home for ENEL
all images courtesy of ENEL / studio arthur casas

brazilian architect arthur casas has revealed plans to build an experimental self-sufficient home for italian electricity company ENEL. construction will start on site in rio de janeiro before the end of 2015, with the project scheduled to complete before the olympics take place in august 2016. designed as part of the ‘NO.V.A.’ initiative, the scheme has been developed with input from thousands of participants who contributed ideas through the project’s website. in total, 4,000 concepts were assessed by a technical committee, before the best solutions were incorporated as part of the plans.

the approach to the single storey dwelling

‘this project gave us the exciting opportunity to design a house that generates more energy than it consumes‘, explains architect arthur casas. ‘it also made us reassess household space in line with the needs of modern society.’

functioning as a ‘living lab’, inhabitants will be able to test the dwelling’s wide variety of integrated and innovative features. the technologies and their impact on residents’ everyday lives and consumption habits will be constantly monitored, with a view to improving the solutions offered by the project.

the layout of the home responds to the existing landscape

a number of integrated ‘smart’ components are found within the design, allowing the house to operate independently. once such example is a set of sensors with remote-controlled equipment that enable the home’s windows to close with the anticipation of rain. intelligent appliances can also decide autonomously at what time of the day it is best to operate, ensuring a more efficient use of energy.

modular container units open up to present views of the surrounding garden

producing around 105% of its required electricity, the house will be more than self-sufficient — partially owing to the amount of solar energy generated by a series of rooftop panels. surplus electricity can be stored in high-capacity batteries or transferred to the local distribution grid, increasing the generation and consumption of clean energy.

integrated ‘smart’ components are found within the design, allowing the house to operate independently

other planned technologies include: smart metering equipment to measure water, electricity and gas consumption in real time, health monitoring facilities, see-through TVs, windows made from self-cleaning glass and comprehensive rainwater harvesting. the house will also feature an organic garden for food production covering an area of up to 1,000 square meters, and has been designed in such a way so that it does not need electric lighting during the day.

the kitchen helps residents to monitor the foods they are consuming

‘we need to understand our customers’ relationship with energy in the future. we are therefore taking a very open-minded approach to understanding intelligent consumption,’ commented head of ENEL brasil, marcelo llévenes. ‘we will use feedback from the people living in the house to enable us to learn more about how the most innovative solutions available can be made to work for people, and we’ll even have the opportunity to test solutions that are still in the pre-market stage. this is a very exciting project.’

a green roof ensures that heat is retained within the home

compared with conventional houses of the same size, prefabricated construction methods will generate 85% less waste and 80% less carbon emissions. the project uses materials that have a high capacity for thermal insulation, clad with flame-retardant paints with soundproofing qualities. the nature of the project’s prefabricated construction also ensures a much quicker build time.

carefully positioned rooftop apertures bring daylight inside the dwelling

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project info:

project: casa NO.V.A.
architects: studio arthur casas
author: arthur casas
coauthors: beto cabariti, rodrigo carvalho, cristiane trolesi, gabriel ranieri, ana julia sprovieri, nara telles, daniel vianna
interior design: studio arthur casas
project date: november, 2014
project completion: may 21st, 2015
plot area: 2,500 sqm
built area: 390 sqm