Octahome

Following the lifestyle changes and increasing growth of population, we are facing a phenomenon in which we are moving towards the lack of vacant land in order to provide housing.

This transition is happening in such a way that the provision of efficient housing with minimum space occupation in accordance with modern technology, has been prioritized.

One effective method is the construction of compact housing, in order to accommodate the people who prefer or better to say, ought to spend less time at home. Inspired by capsule houses, these units are placed next to each other and provide housing for the junior / senior educated class.

Population density and the gathering of people in one place, reminded us of the honey bee gathering. A beehive in which honey bees live there, has got a hexagonal shape.

So, we’ve been inspired by this idea to design based on geometrical polygons.

The design process started with a simple trial and error. 1st step was studying the most common shapes which are being used in building construction, such as squares and rectangles.

These shapes have got sharp corners that each one of them is 90 degrees. For the next step, we studied pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, and octagons. All in all, we realized that the external angles that octagonal shapes make, are significantly less than the rest of examined shapes.

It also causes less wall slope which allows us to design optimal furniture in the space. Basically, Whenever the small-sized housing topic comes up, people would think about lack of space immediately. There might be major disturbance in residents' performance as well.

Optimum furniture design in a residential unit, leads us directly to solve the common problem which is the lack of space. This action is being done in such a way that the furniture is taken from the wall itself, and generates bigger and better circulation space for the residents.

Eventually, we have come to a compromise and designed Octahome.

Modular design, in usual capsule houses, is one of the important priorities of the project. The octagon shape, allows us to add / remove / replace one or even more modules from time to time without interfering with the overall structure.

Due to the fact that, the main residents of Octahome, are people who have immigrated for education or job opportunities. Therefore, economic housing design in addition to the mentioned factors, is necessary. So, our site was chosen due to its good position from different aspects.

The price of housing matters so much for this type of residents, as far as the mentioned site has been located in the south of Tehran (the capital of Iran), it's being considered as moderately cheap housing. The proximity to the main access ways of public transportation, educational centers, medical services, various malls, and most importantly, the existence of job opportunities in this area, are all the key points that turn this area into a valuable site in order to build a plug-in house.

As a matter of fact, It's inexorable that we are providing housing for a group of immigrants who are not able to pay much money for monthly rent, but this must not be considered as an obstacle and mislead the designers. Every building deserves to cover all the necessary aspects that a complete modern house should have, regardless of its price.

However, energy consumption in our project has been minimized as much as possible. These units have got a tall window on both sides, so that less hours are needed for the lights to be on, and as a result, less electricity will be consumed. This also turns the space alive and residents feel pretty delighted.

The units are organized into 3 different types, which are: 25 square meters, 30 square meters and 70 square meters.

The used material in this project is self-cleaning. So that it does not lose its beauty over time. Also, ventilation and mechanical installations are placed on the roof of each unit, which leads the air to flow from the north side to the south.

Our future plan for the development of modules, is the 100-square meters units. Through the process, one of the small types of units and a big one, are going to be merged and connected to each other through a staircase. The result would be able to accommodate up to three or even four people.

It is hoped that by implementing this idea, we would take a big step forward in the plug-in housing field.