Last night, the Open Source House network declared the winner of its competition to design a flexible, sustainable and affordable (i.e. less than 12.500 euros) house for developing countries. Announced at the Faculty of Architecture in Delft by Mrs. Aanaa N. Enin, the Ghanaian ambassador, and Cameron Sinclair, director of Architecture for Humanity, first place went to Lisbon and Rio-based blaanc borderless architecture, for its Emerging Ghana proposal by Ana Morgado, João Caeiro, Lara Camilla Pinho, Maria de Paz Sequeira Braga and Maria de Carmo Caldeira. Selected out of 3100 young architects from 45 countries, they won the ultimate prize of their project being used as a pilot case in Ghana.

This is why the jury chose Emerging Ghana as the winning project:

The heavy weight adobe walls in combination with the modular lightweight panels of bamboo and dahoma wood unifies symbiotically. In addition, the design offers a nice variety of modular elements. The modular elements create a desirable relationship between inside and outside spaces creating a rich living environment. The elements allow natural ventilation to run through the building, where the coolness can be picked up from the adobe walls due to thermal mass. These low-tech design solutions together with the selection of materials are thought to respond well to the local climate of Cape Coast.

The architectural scheme is recognizable in the context of Ghana, therefore making the plan familiar to those who will be living in it. It is this aspect that will contribute positively to the acceptance and respectability of the home. The jury is bought by the courtyard, and is convinced that the courtyard will work as the heart of the house, especially with the central open fire. The double height gives option for urban densification and offers space for collective and/or public space. Doing so, Emerging Ghana illustrates an integral approach by including the garden in the design.

From concept to functionality:

More on Open Source House, an initiative of Enviu and architect Vincent van der Meulen:

Goal

The aim of the initiative is to improve the quality of life of people who are now forced to live in slums. The Ghanaian competition is the first step to this great challenge and provides over 250 designs for the Open Source House platform. The designs are also open for use, to be improved and adapted to the local needs and conditions in any city. Based on the results of the pilot project in Ghana, the aim will also be to scale fast, with the goal of realizing 100.000+ OS-Houses before the year 2020.

Approach

Open Source House has a double approach, bottom up and top-down. Focused global knowledge and creativity about sustainable housing design is collected on the online platform and made available for local use and implementation. At the same time, the network sought out local commitment in Ghana and did extensive research on social and cultural characteristics, taking into account the wishes and needs of the end-user and assessing the current housing industry. Rather than impose a new solution, it makes knowledge available which puts the power back in the hands of the end-users, so they can free themselves from the limited choice that is offered to them by the market today.

Design Principles

Locally embedded - The design is embedded in the local cultural context (e.g. socially and economically); it can be produced locally, aims at improving local employment and know-how and strives to minimize the need for import and transportation.

Design the whole life cycle - The future disassembly and material-use are an integral part of the design. All organic and technical materials can be separated. Natural resources are renewable.

Climate - The design makes optimal use of its location and surrounding climate conditions in order to minimize energy consumption.

Size - The design adheres to local building standards. Elements are transportable and re-usable (e.g. elements of house ‘A’ are exchangeable with elements of house ‘B’).

Structure - The load-bearing structure is separated from the demountable building skin.

Connections - All connections between the components and the structure are dry and demountable. This makes re-assembly easy and clean.

Installations - All installations must guarantee a flexible organization of the household and provide a sustainable way of living. The installations are smart, safe, upgradeable and adapted to the local ecology. They can function independently from the structure and skin.

Open Source Share - All designs and ideas will be published and shared on www. os-house.org to inspire others. Others may use, improve and adapt them. For that purpose designs, drawings and presentations are made in a clear, reproducible manner.

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We look forward to seeing how the Ghana project becomes a reality, as with all the objectives of the Open Source House network.

To see the other winning entries (10 in total) and the jury's thoughts on each (it's interesting to see the pro's and con's explained in each case), download the full Jury Report.