Loblolly House Elements of a New Architecture

Description

Known for their in-depth research and innovative, inventive, and meticulously constructed architecture, KieranTimberlake Assoicates put its ideas about streamlining the making of architecture to the test. The results took the form of a fully modular and award-winning house, featuring an active and adjustable double-skin facade so advanced that no client would consider it. KieranTimberlake Assoicates boldly took the project upon themselves, using partner Stephen Kierans own summer house as a laboratory. Situated on idyllic Taylors Island, off the coast of Marylands Chesapeake Bay, Loblolly House inaugurates a truly new, more efficient way of building. Through the use of state-of-the-art building information modeling (BIM), the architects were able to streamline the design-build process. Thousands of parts were collapsed and integrated into a few dozen panels and blocks that slid into an aluminum frame set on wooden pylons. Consisting of 70 percent prefabricated components, the kit-of-parts house was assembled (mostly with a wrench) and lifted into place on-site in less than six weeks. Unlike most houses, even those built with sustainability in mind, Loblolly disassembles as easily as it assembles, making it an ecologically sound structure with a manageable environmental footprint. Focusing on a single built project andillustrated with extensive photographic documentation and numerous detailed drawings, Loblolly House is the manual for componentized prefab.