A team from Yale University and Gray Organschi Architecture have designed and built the Ecological Living Module, a 215-square-foot self-sufficient tiny house, for UN Environment and UN Habitat.
The unit uses passive lighting and moisture collection, structural cross-laminated timber (CLT), food-growing green walls, and sun-tracking solar panels to shrink both the building’s embodied energy and resource needs, says Jonathan Hilburg for The Architect's Newspaper. It was also partially prefabricated, with design and installation taking only four weeks from start to finish.
According to UN Environment, housing construction worldwide uses 40 percent of all resources produced every year and accounts for one-third of greenhouse gas emissions (not to mention the conflicts being fought over rapidly dwindling materials like sand). The module was commissioned just in time for the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, to illustrate the idea that sustainable urbanization can only be accomplished if buildings minimize their contribution to climate change. The team wanted to build a system that could be assembled with the least amount of effort, and that would use the minimal amount of toxic materials to create.
In order to balance maximum sun exposure with thermal comfort, the module was designed with New York’s specific micro-climate in mind. The dramatically-sloped building is clad in dark cedar planks and is home to two cascading “farm walls”, one on either side, and Gray Organschi claims that in New York the home can produce over 260 servings of vegetables. Plants were used inside as well in the loft area, and a living wall in the upper loft area purifies air for the inhabitants.
The home is on display in UN Plaza in Midtown Manhattan until July 18.
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