Do it ourselves building
One of the project´s outsets was to have the house built by volunteers, i.e. the association´s members, who have no former experience of construction work. The project was organized through workshops, with some help from mentoring professional constructors. For above reasons, the construction would have to be simple and logical.
Another important aspect in a project like this is the time. Since the volunteering construction workers are only able to work on their spare time, and have limited experience of construction work, it will be more time consuming than an average construction project. In our case, it took three years.
The most expensive denominator in an industrial construction project is the construction worker himself. This is normally compensated through the purchase of ready-made parts that are installed with cranes.
Being manufactured in factories where the cost of labor is lower, these parts are viewed as inexpensive. But when the cost of labor is zero, the material is no longer inexpensive, but the main cost. And in this case it is better to manufacture everything yourself.
Embracing this philosophy is turning the whole idea of an economical building process upside down.
Instead of timesaving solutions with somewhat of a material cost, you choose a time-consuming solution with a lower material costs. As an example it was more economical to raise the glued laminated timber framing the old fashion way with a rope, manual forceand a pulley, than simply renting an expensive crane.
Scaffolding/secondary framing
In an extended construction project such as this, it was not financially feasible to rent an entire scaffolding. Instead, I designed the house´s secondary framingto be just that. It stabilized itself, up to two floors, which was enough to build the primary framing´sfirst floor.
This enabled us to continue building it upwards, where it functioned as scaffolding for the rest of the house. The secondary framingis a combination of pre-manufactured products such as scaffolding plates and scaffolding feet with custom designed carrying frames.
The frames is designed with a u-profile on top (where the plate is attached), and else with a pipe size that fits the adjustable feet. These pipes are thinner on top, which enables the next floor to be slided on. All we had to do was to weld the splices, to stop them from sliding apart, hammer the feet into the concrete deck, and adjust the levels to insure that the construction was straight.
The scaffolding framewas designed to constitute the infrastructure in the finished building, holding its staircases and hallways. The frames, higher and wider than the standard frames, also linked the floors and created a handicap-friendly space, enough for the fire escapes. This structure also carries the façade. We used square profiles instead of the usual round ones in order to facilitate the welding of the horizontal framing. The frames were actually built by a group of friendly and generous welders in south of Sweden, shipped to Stockholm in a van, and then installed by the association and welded together by the groups car mechanic.
Economy/ecology
In the industrialized world, ecology has been transformed into consumable products. The whole concept of consuming ecology is counterproductive. Sweden is a cold country and isolating costs money. But - instead of building twice as thick walls in cold countries such as Sweden, we could allow for certain areas of our homes, work places and social areas to be a bit colder – or even lack heating all together – during wintertime. People lived this way for centuries. In order to minimize the need for heating in the wintertime certain rooms were not occupied. It is a philosophy that focuses on lowering your ecological footprints (by adapting to the climate we live in) rather than consuming our way to it – which in the end is a strain on the world´s resources. A drastically lowered consumption is, without a doubt, better than ecological consumption.
We call the Cyclops model for `a poor man´s ecology´. The association´s budget was never enough to build a grand house. Had the entire building needed heating during the winter, it could never fulfill all its needs and visions.
The house is shaped around a warm center, the elevated box. The building shell is heated by waste-heat from the box, with the help of an additional 4kw heat pump during the cold seasons. The core and the shell have adequate heating.
The building shell is made of 5 cm thick polycarbonate plastic, which in energy terms equals a two-glass window. At an outside temperature of -20 C (which does occur a couple of times each winter) the shell´s temperature by the floor is +5C, +10 C by the roof, and +20 C inside the box. During the fall and the autumn the shell can be used to the fullest, during wintertime the activities are restricted to those with many participants.
The house can fit 360 people. Each person radiates approximately 40 watt, which totals up to 14,4 kw of heating - enough to heat up the hallway to +15 C. It does, however, take a couple of hours to get it heated. Luckily, the visitors are used to this and thus dress accordingly. Most events attract many visitors, too. And, while wearing their jackets there is no need for a wardrobe service. This Cultural House follows the seasons and adapts to nature.
The roof consists of a transparent plastic roof. There are plans to create a garden on the attic – the roof of the box. A +10 C during wintertime is quite enough for Mediterranean plants to survive. As you can see, the small climate adjustments have a great impact on the conditions of its users.
See the diagram: ”Insulation”.
The land
In an expanding city such as Stockholm, the competition is fierce. The association leases the land from the city, but the land provided is of poor quality. It is actually an old swamp, with 12 meters to the bearing layer. Since the association couldn´t afford to dig up that big of a hole and fill it up, nor to pile it, they built the house on a firmer layer of clay, the so-called solum.
Despite the fact that the concrete foundation is reinforced twice, the geo technicians evaluate that uneven settlements over time will become as large as 7 cm. To avoid larger cracks in the floor, it is a deck of its own, carried by the thicker frame. This might in time result thresholds, but thresholds are still a better option than cracks.
According to the constructor, the primary framing, made of glued laminated timber, is flexible enough to endure the settlements. The secondary framing on the other hand, is of steel, and would break by a similar strain.
This is why it is attached to the glued laminated timber with sliding supports. I chose adjustable scaffolding feet to this framing, so that we can adjust the height on each separate module, in order for it to assimilate the settlements that might occur. The façade itself is also placed in sliding supports, which enables it to move freely from the steel framing when anchored into the concrete ground.
The upper part has room enough for the steel framing to be raised or lowered with regard to the glued timber framing. This will help the building to adapt to the nature´s movements – since there was not money to adapt the nature.
Arson attack – The history of the house
The association´s previous house was burnt down by neo-Nazis - most likely due to the Cyclops anti-racist work. When it was time to re-build the house, fire safety was hugely important. Similar attacks could not be allowed to destroy the house again.
This is why the wooden frame is intercalated from the façade carcass. The plastic used in the façade is very fire resistant, and are considered to be more or less fireproof, putting them out themselves.
The secondary framing, carrying the plastic, is made out of steel in order to avoid that the fire spreads to the primary framing. The primary framing, carrying the second floor and the roof, is dimensioned to burn for an hour without collapsing. Tree resists heat better than steel and runs a lower risk of folding itself in case of a fire. In these specific circumstances and with these given economical conditions, this solution was considered to be the best.
Ventilation
The ventilation is a low-tech design. At summertime, its large shell ventilates through the windows on top of the long side using the principal of the `natural draft´, as well as through open doors or its vents. During this season, the box balances the air coming in with the air blown out. Instead of letting in heated air from the shell (which during summertime is too heated) the box fetches colder air from the outside. During wintertime only the extraction fans are on, which means that the preheated air from the shell is sucked in through its vents. See the diagram `ventilation´.
