The concept behind the DUNEhouse project is to create a flexible tool* more than a design where the client has the possibility to define his own house. Mainly, the idea is based on a system composed by different volumes where each of them represents a program or a cluster of it (bedroom and bathroom, kitchen, swimming poll, etc.) and the client is able to distribute them on the plot and creating every kind of space and connection that he prefers. The catalogue on the left is showing, from the left, the growth of the house, from step 1 to step 5; and from the top to the bottom, 3 of the, almost infinitive, possibilities of distribution of the house. This system is working with different parameters in order to create the edges in which this tool can operate ( each of them operates following a non-linear logic but an iterative logic). In this project, the most important parameter is the wind, so the base geometry of the house (the sequence of air flow analysis below shows some of the wind test) is organised in order to maximise the wind flow and consequently the natural ventilation inside the building. To increase the effect of this mechanism all the house volumes (made of reinforced and insulated concrete shells) have been thought on the top of small artificial dunes working as thermal mass with the aim to regulate the income air temperature (diagrammatic section on the left). Moreover, the shell insulation is given by a covering envelope composed by different soil bubbles working as a green wall where the plants are able to grow and consequently regulating the microclimate surrounding the house.
