Circular by Design Building with Kerto LVL elements Introduction Flexible, sustainable and beautiful buildings besides revaluating the existing building stock. We should listen to the end-users for whom we build and offer flexibility for the wishes of the next generation. This means buildings should be built differently. Maskerade® offers a wooden frame from Kerto LVL beams and studs with a long-term vision on flexibility, where people can create their own environment. The Maskerade® building method The Maskerade® building method is industrially produced by assembling [large] prefabricated elements for floors, walls and facades. This results in a short building process and a highly-controlled quality. The frame supplies the aesthetic, constructive and technical base. The various finishing options (such as: arrangement, installations and finishing) makes the frame complete. The separation of frame and finishing increases a building’s viability and guarantees you a long term of exploitation [ >100 Years…...…...]. Architecture The exterior of a Maskerade building should always fit within its surroundings and should have a high feel-good content. Freedom of design and use are at the core of this method. The system gives architects and builders facilities by using the Maskerade® library of details in their own practice. Construction principle Maskerade is a modular system tuned on [standard] structural possibilities of KERTO LVL.The system is based on a vertical way of building and enables you to build up to 5 stories within a day….both wind and waterproof! A signature characteristic of the Maskerade building construction is that the floors are imposed in a slot in the wall and façade. In this way, the walls and facades can be stacked so the shrinking in the construction is avoided and the stability improved. *] The key element in the construction is the Flexvloer ®. This floor element has a standard span of 7,5m and a width of 2,5m. The controlled production allows a very rigid floor with excellent comfort for the user. The wall and façade elements have a standard height of 3,5 m. The floor, wall and façade elements are all prefabricated including insulation, glazed windows and installations. Maskerade is a modular system tuned on the [standard] constructive KERTO LVL offers. *] In case of earthquakes or a heavy storm, Maskerade cab guarantees the necessary strength by stabilizing the nodes and other connections. To guarantee a continuous quality, the system MASKERADE offers a library and 3D-BIM models. The developed design aspects and details have proved themselves in practise during the last decade and are now usable for all kinds of circular buildings. Healthy Comfort Maskerade is a vapour permeable and air-tight building system. To improve the comfort in winter and summer a cellulose isolation is injected in the walls, façade, roof and ground floor. Because of this, the building temperature and humidity is constant and gives a comfortable, healthy indoor environment. The glued insulation and acoustics are secured in the finish of the Flexvloer® and the slot in the walls and facades. September 2017
'Kokoon' is a design and construction project built to address the current housing situation in Europe where a shortage of short-term housing affects many residents from asylum seekers to students and families whose apartments undergo renovation. The project is a pre-fabricated and transportable module for living that can be stacked or spread into a larger configurations for a period of a few weeks or months, The units can then be moved to another location when necessary. The scale and flexibility of the project allows for a large range of configurations to fit various urban and sub-urban contexts. In each case, the units are finished inside with integrated lighting and furniture with only stacking and connection work done on site. To test and demonstrate the possibilities of this modular system, three prototype modules were built at full scale and stacked together to be put on public display.
Based in the material features as flexibility and stability, we started a research about wood joints, which in turn generated a construct system. Thus the whole is generated from the unfolding or replication of its minimum modulus (detail), respecting the properties of the material and optimizing its use. Besides being a renewable and recyclable material, wood panels are easily find all over the world, which allows manufacturing the parts near the construction area, reducing the cost of transportation and developing the local market. The combination of the clip that facilitates the connections with its layer-by-layer building system ensures that the construction is always stable throughout the entire process. This condition allows non-specialized people using only a rubber hammer be part to the assembly process and it makes the system ideal in an accelerated and organic urban development society. All team members: Thomaz Vieira ( System Developer Head of the project ) Tomás Mena ( Project Developer Head of Data Management ) Maria Wilkens ( Project Manager Head of Media )