layout: post title: “Description” categories: Studio Process author:

  • Martha Zheng

Floor Area (in both m² and sf): 27.63m², 297.38ft²

Interior Volume: 43.43m², 467.48ft²

Site Address/Type: Anywhere.

Estimated value: $50,000

Material/Construction/Assembly: Recycled wooden frames with a plastic PTO membrane

Typical Owner: Poor Family, working people of any age, or graduates, who in urgent need of housing, 1 to 4 people.

Salt Lake City is a city full of young people（the largest proportion of the city’s population is in the 25 to 39 age group). Due to population growth and rapid economic growth, the demand for housing in this city has surged, resulting in a shortage of housing. In the future, long-term population and economic growth will lead to a rapid increase in housing prices in Salt Lake County. The housing market in Salt Lake City cannot keep up with demand, which has prompted many millennials and new residents to enter the rental market. Although many people want to own their own homes, affordability is an issue for young people who want to become homeowners. Therefore, economical, and practical tiny houses have increasingly become the goal of people’s house purchase. Mobile homes are good choices. They provide the benefits and comforts we want in people’s housing at affordable prices. Not only this, but they are growing in popularity because of their simplicity and minimalist qualities. Especially young people would like to move their house to anywhere. Fields, the forests can be a place to stay on a weekend. My design is regarding DIY mobile homes. The house has two floors and consists of five parts. The basic structure is mass-produced in the factory. Customers can choose their favorite exterior materials and furniture in the factory. After the parts of their own house are completed, the factory will call the customer to inform them to take away their house. Then, they can choose to assemble the mobile home anywhere. The location can be fields, mountains, lakes, piers, residential areas, etc. Enter the house from the front door, first is the tatami room. The tatami is 0.6m above the ground to ensure that there is enough space inside for storage. Then there are the bathroom, kitchen, and living room. The living room is small, adjacent to the back door. There is a row of low cabinets connected to the stair shelf and the bookshelf. You can sit on the low cabinet and read a book or watch TV. The bookshelves occupies the entire wall of the first and second floors, and several bookshelf grids are connected to the windows, and they are arranged irregularly. This means that some bookshelf grids are used to transmit light. On the second floor, there is a single bedroom with a double bed, a bedside table and a writing desk. In addition, there is a bay window connected to the storage cabinet, you can sit on it and have afternoon tea and enjoy the scenery outside the window. This kind of house is a wooden structure, and the price is very low. The materials used for the walls include CDX plywood, polypropylene fibers, oriented strand board, light structural lumber, and recycled paper insulation. There are two types of windows. Polycarbonate windows are connected to the bookshelves, while glass windows are used in the bathroom and living room. The foundation is composed of concrete and steel plates. Regarding the importance of foundations, since manufactured/mobile homes are lighter than those built on-site, and most homes are still above the ground on the dock, they need special protection when a tropical storm or hurricane strikes. Utah occasionally experiences severe thunderstorms, which can reach tropical storm intensity in a short period of time. The storm can blow under the house, lift it up, and then press against the wall, pushing it off the foundation. The wind blowing over the roof also produces a lifting action like that of a wing. Therefore, when combining the house, we put the two parts as close together as possible and use a jack to move the floor level from one half to the other half as close as possible. Then put the lag screws from one side into the other side from the bottom of the house through the marriage beam joists. The lag screws fix the bottom of the house together. The water level will be used again at this time. When the rolled half is still lifted in the air, the block is brought in, and then the pier is constructed flush with the half of the pier already set. At this point, the lower half can be lowered onto the dock. Next, install the waterproof board and/or tar paper. Loosen the jack, and then connect the inner wall and the outer wall with screws or bolts, and the main part of the house is completed. To complete this home, electricity, water, and air conditioning must be connected. The roof of this house is made up of more than a dozen solar panels for power supply. The bathroom and the kitchen are back-to-back from the facade, which means that they share the same sewer pipe. Grey water is used here, which can purify and divert the water. Among them, part of the water is purified and can be used to irrigate the garden; and the unusable sewage will be discharged into the nearest sewer.