After seeing the Christiania house on Ramshackle Solid, I have been thinking about the viability of a modular steel building model to be skinned with windows.
Image: Pella
First, we need to select a window. This will be the primary building block for the structure. Something simple, standardized and cheap.
Like the Hollaender Speed Rail systems, there could be a standardized hardware kit for assembling steel channel and angle. A frame work would be bolted together.
Hot rolled steel channel via Sinotrans Jiangsu Imp.& Exp. Co., Ltd.Rather than 2"x 4"s, an individual would buy a pre-drilled, powdercoated kit of structural steel. Instead of skinning the frame with traditional materials, the standardized windows would slide into the channel from the top. The windows would be stacked to create walls of glass.
Included:
- Plans for concrete foundation
- Bolts to float in the concrete - when the contractor poured your foundation, they would place the bolts that the structure would bolt to
- Base steel - the perimeter steel that would bolt to the foundation and provide base for the uprights
- Channel steel - in effect, this would be the 2x4 in a standard stick construction
- Urethane/teflon strips with foam back tape - these would be applied inside the channel to provide a slippery, soft, gap sealing track for the windows to slide into
- Windows - select from casement, double hung or solid glass panels
- Big rubber mallet - to seat the windows in the channels
- Door - some sort of door
- Roof - some sort of roof
- Solid wall panels - some sort of solid material that would be the same thickness as the windows - could be as simple as horizontal chunks of 2x6s stacked in the channel
Previously on D+R, Shackitecture