New Zealand firm shortlisted for Mini Living design competition
Jasmax and Beca’s shortlisted submission for the Mini Living Future Urban Home competition seeks to place 3D-printed, prefabricated homes in the “leftover” urban spaces of Wellington.
The proposal, titled Dwelly, has been prototyped in three different places: between office buildings on Lambton Quay (seen here), in a hairpin bend in a road at Oriental Bay (seen next) and on an ‘urban cliff’ in Boulcott St (seen previous).
The dwellings are flexible and easy to maintain and repair, making them an apt response to cities around the world where natural disasters and extreme conditions will become increasingly prevalent.
Dezeen and Mini Living’s Future Urban Home competition announced its shortlist earlier this week, and New Zealand firm Jasmax has been included among the 15 finalists. Over 400 entries were submitted to the competition, which asked designers, thinkers and creators to propose designs for a home 100 years in the future. Dezeen reports that it asked entries “to the consider the challenges that cities will face over the next century, and to propose innovative solutions for urban homes to overcome those challenges.”
The submission from the Wellington Jasmax team, titled Dwelly, seeks to create homes in “leftover urban spaces, in between, on top of, or even on the side of existing buildings. Homes are built by stacking different units on top of each other and are designed to be quick to build and dismantle,” the company says. The concept was created with engineering support from Beca and is a 3D-printed, prefab modular system.
Evelyn Axten, part of the design team, explains, “We decided to try and solve a design challenge that we see in our city, in other cities around New Zealand and even the world, where earthquakes and extreme storms are increasingly predicted. Our design asks the question, what if we could design a housing solution that would stand up to earthquakes and extreme weather, give us views in this stunning city, let us live in the heart of the urban space we love and occupy the spaces no one else would occupy?”
Read more about the Future Urban Home competition and see the full shortlist here. The winner will be announced on 17 January 2019.
