House of Parts
House of Parts is a smart, easy to assemble, attractive system
that can be used to construct sustainable buildings. It
will also be able to be used for new build as well as additions to
existing buildings. It has been designed to be able to be easily
put together, and can be simply altered or changed in the
future.
With my uncle David Pidcock, we decided that it would be
agreat if we could design a clever system of assembling rather than
building a house. A system which offered a solution to the waste,
inefficiencies and problems associated with the building
process.
We had agreed on some fundamentals for the system:
- Must have outstanding environmental credentials.
- Must achieve excellence in architectural design and build
quality.
- All components must be able to be packed for transport into
standard shipping containers.
- Buildings must be able to be easily assembled by semi-skilled
or DIY personnel. All components must be pre cut, pre drilled, and
pre finished.
- All services must be able to be installed and modified after
construction phase and lockup.
- Wet trades and on site finishing should be eliminated.
- All elements must be able to be connected together using clever
proprietary coupling and connecting systems.
- All components must be able to be lifted by hand. No cranes
needed.
- Buildings must be able to be re-configured and modified without
disturbing the adjacent elements.
- Building components must be able to be dissembled re-used.
- Column, beam and wall panel type construction should be
strongly considered.
House of Parts is a building system which consists of high
strength, light weight pre-finished components, which can be
transported in standard shipping containers. This will allow the
purchaser to erect a well designed, highly efficient ecologically
sustainable building from these components, and to do so quickly
and easily, with minimum need for qualified tradespeople and
without need for heavy lifting equipment.
Benefits of the system include:
- Having control over every stage of the design, manufacture and
building process has allowed us to produce a building of very low
environmental impact and extremely high thermal and energy
efficiency. We have successfully reduced material usage, minimised
transport and travel, increased construction efficiencies and
substantially reduced energy usage and carbon omissions. We have
designed the components of our buildings to be not just re-cycled
but disassembled and re-used, many times over for many years to
come.
- Build time is substantially reduced while unscheduled time
delays and cost over runs are minimised, allowing you to occupy
your new house much sooner.
- Safety standards are improved as most work takes place in a
carefully controlled manufacturing environment not a building site.
Risk is minimised due to reductions in heavy structural elements,
crane usage, power tool usage, and road kilometres travelled by
building personnel.
- Cost/ design/ quality ratio represents excellent value for
money particularly considering low maintenance high value retention
and numerous re-sale options.
- The building system allows for staged construction, easy
modification, alterations, reconfigurations, additions and
relocation of all or part of the structure at any time in response
to changing or evolving needs and finances. The whole building can
be sold separately from the property.
- A wide range of standard designs is available including 2 story
and multiple dwelling options. Also, custom designs can be created
to your design brief, and incorporating the HOP system. Full
project designs can also be provided.
- Suitable for use in earthquake-prone areas due to high
strength, high flex, light weight, structural materials and robust
connection designs.
- Suitable for use in bushfire zones due to non-combustible
structure, walling and insulation materials.
- Repairs and Maintenance costs are reduced due to extremely
tough impact resistant durable non-porous materials inside and
outside. The modular design allows easy repair or replacing
individual building elements.
- Suitable for a wide range of uses including residential,
commercial, industrial, educational, sport and recreation,
accommodation, defence, eco cabins, holiday housing,
emergency response, mining and indigenous communities projects
short and medium term building solutions.
- Innovative design features include
- Service ducting in beams, wall panels and skirting as well as
removable access panels allow easy installation & alteration of
services at any stage.
- The ability to incorporate owner specified equipment and
finishes including cupboards, floor coverings, windows and doors,
electrical and plumbing equipment, lighting, PV arrays, rain water
collection & storage and waste water treatment systems.
- Suitability for use in manufactured home estates.
David Pidcock
Caroline Pidcock
Warwick Donnelly
Graham Hunt
Rolando Graterol
Hannah Lippert
Kris Roser
HOP can be used to develop buildings that incorporate:
- Simple and intuitive methods for operating the house
- Collaborative team approach
- Considerate building approaches
- Provision of home office facilities
- Location of house near local facilities
- Food composting facilities
- Convenient location of storage space for recycling
- Building designed to be adaptable and accessible
- Convenient storage for bicycles to encourage use
- Car parking area able to be easily converted for other
uses
HOP can be used to develop buildings that incorporate:
- Good thermal performance of house
- Good natural light and ventilation
- Good views to the outside
- Attention to planning and detailing to manage acoustics
- Low VOC paints
- Low VOC boards for joinery
HOP can be used to develop buildings that incorporate:
- Good thermal performance to result in minimal heating and
cooling
- Appropriate levels of insulation and thermal mass
- Ability to zone areas of the building
- Ceiling fans to bedrooms and living rooms
- Well designed natural ventilation throughout building
- Good natural light throughout building
- Low energy lighting using fluorescents and LEDS
- Energy efficient appliances
- Solar hot water heating
- Energy efficient systems selected for cooking
- The installation of photo voltaics for energy generation
- Convenient, dedicated, sunny area for drying clothes
- Building wired for smart switching so unused appliances and
lights can be easily turned off
HOP can be used to develop buildings that incorporate:
- High performance water saving fixtures and appliances
- Low water garden
- water tanks, connected to toilets, washing machine and
landscape
- Grey water system connected to landscape
HOP has been developed with the following particularly in
mind:
- Materials selected with thought given to reducing their impacts
over their life
- Buildings designed with modular and standard sizes in mind to
reduce waste
- Buildings designed with deconstruction in mind
- Buildings designed to easily adapt to changing family
lifestyles
- Certified timber for framed windows and doors
- Certified timber for new floor boards and decking
To be determined for each project undertaken using the
system.
HOP can assist in protecting the existing ecology of the site by
causing the least amount of disruption during construction of a
building.