Ty Unnos – a Welsh timber construction
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Ty Unnos – ‘the house of one night’ - is a partnership between Coed Cymru, Welsh School of Architecture (WSA) and University of Wales Bangor funded by the Countryside Council for Wales and the Wales Forest Business Partnership. The purpose was to establish the feasibility of producing low cost, affordable housing using homegrown softwood. The study concluded that home-grown softwood was not suitable for the types of timber frame structures currently manufactured in Wales but that a low-tech, contemporary, solution making use of local crafts and skills was possible. Utilising the standard timber sizes produced by local sawmills, Sitka spruce box beams could be prefabricated, off-site, to form a structural portal frame as a complete assembly or in individual components, and infill, pre-insulated panels to form both external and internal walls, floors and roofs. These frames and panels have been designed to create a series modular rooms varying in sizes from 1.2m x 3m to 4.8m x 3m or from entrance lobby to small bedroom to kitchen to living room. This would enable a variety of house types to be generated on different sites, in different layouts and different sizes, always with the potential to add on modules as the requirements of the house evolve over time.The project has attracted a great deal of interest from architects and developers with the project team recently being awarded a 3 year EPSRC grant to continue research on the system through a PhD by Rob Thomas. Rob is a recent architecture graduate from the WSA, receiving a distinction in his final degree thesis. His past practice experience, with Davies Sutton, and interest in material and construction will be of great value to the continuing development of the project. He will be involved in a number of public and private funded projects that are currently at various stages of planning and design. The first should be complete in 2008 and subject to funding the first affordable housing unit should be completed by 2009.
For further details contact Coed Cymru (01686 650 777) or WSA (02920 875965)
Design Research Unit w
Bute Building
King Edward VII Ave
Cardiff
Tel: 02920 874430
Email: dru@cf.ac.uk
Bute Building
King Edward VII Ave
Cardiff
Tel: 02920 874430
Email: dru@cf.ac.uk