Expandable House
April 22, 2019
The expandable house (rumah tambah in Bahasa Indonesia, or rubah for short) is a component of the Tropical Town project, and is designed as a sustainable response to the challenges of rapidly developing cities in monsoon Asia.
The expandable house adjusts to the fluctuating patterns of resource consumption and expenditure, or metabolism, of its residents. This includes the influx of young migrants from all over Indonesia—so how would the city accommodate this inflow by way of housing, amenities, etc.?
In practical terms, this means understanding the patterns of household income generation and expenditure, water, energy and food consumption, as well as waste production. Rumah tambah focuses on the challenge of housing by allowing the base to be flexibly configured. A prototype of the expandable house has been constructed in Batam, with the support of the community of Kampung Tua Melayu, where a field laboratory is located.
| Project Name | Expandable House |
|---|---|
| Location | Batam, Indonesia |
| Completion Date | November 2017 |
| Site Area | 60 square metres |
| Gross Floor Area | 36 square metres |
| Building Height | 3 metres |
| Collaborator/Owner | Community of Kampung Melayu Batu Besar, Batam |
| Design Firms | Future Cities Laboratory (FCL); Singapore-ETH Centre(SEC) |
| Principal Architect | Stephen Cairns |
| Project Team | Urban-Rural System, Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) |
| Mechanical & Electrical Engineer | Azwan Aziz |
| Civil & Structural Engineers | Philipp Müller; Teddy Tambunan |
| Images/Photos | Dio Guna Putra |
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