The Plug & Play House

The client is an information technology professional and works in the United States of America. He had made a substantial investment in a site close to Hinjewadi, the I.T. hub of Pune. The main purpose was investment with a future plan to convert the site into an apartment block.

The client’s requirement indicated a small house consisting of bedrooms for his children and himself, a small kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a store, and a covered car park. Given the temporary nature of this structure, whatever was built now would be razed or removed once the apartment block project got under way and this was a very important consideration while designing the house.

Since the site was completely vacant, we decided to earmark a part of it for actual farming, albeit on a small scale. Being a conscious adherent of the principle of sustainability, the client had asked us for a house built either with sustainable material or recycled material. Therefore, we decided to use recycled material in its construction. We began exploring the use of shipping containers.

As can be seen in the accompanying illustration, this farmhouse is made of two 20-foot containers, with a substantial space of almost 24 feet between the two. Each container effectively becomes sleeping quarters with attached toilets, one for the client and another for his children. The space between the two containers can be put to use by way of the kitchen, the dining room, and the living-cum-entertainment room. This whole composition can be covered with a “sandwich panel roofing system” which is basically a thermocol sheet inserted between two metal sheets with a view to reducing heat penetration into the house. To further reduce heat accumulation in the conical roof, we devised clerestory windows in the north side, so that all the hot air can escape through these windows. This also serves the purpose of air circulation even if the house is locked or is not in use for months on end.

The southern side of the house is angled to 20°, so that the whole roof can accommodate solar panels and the house can be completely net zero. Most of the material used here is recycled, barring that used for electrical wiring and plumbing. For example, the whole paneling of the house, both outside and inside, is done in pinewood recycled from the packaging material used for Mercedes-Benz engines and spare parts imported from Europe. This is, in fact, pinewood of a very good quality and it lends a certain warmth to the house. Being light in colour, it also gives a very airy feel to the house, besides achieving a certain Scandinavian touch in the design.

Once finished, this project will set a benchmark. It also has the potential to be a prototype for a number of similar farmhouse projects around the city of Pune.

According to our plan, all the work on the containers will be done at off-site workshops. Even the roof structure will be done in a lego or plug-in-play manner. It will then be transported to the site and assembled there within a week’s time.

All in all, this farmhouse should serve as a pointer to the ideal way in which such projects can be executed and promote the 3R’s (Reduce / Reuse / Recycle) philosophy.

Project Description