14 DAY TRIAL // This year's Swissbau exhibition, in Basel, Switzerland, saw an amazing, new concept being presented to the general public. The Self living module is a home away from home, a temporary dwelling that can fit a large number of uses, according to its creators. Designed and built by the Empa and Eawag research institutes, the mobile container is meant to demonstrate new standards as far as home concepts and energy efficiency are concerned. With four rooms available (kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom), Self is a structure that can be easily transported and installed, and does not depend on exterior water and energy supplies to function, AlphaGalileo reports.
“The 'Self' living module is designed as a living area and workplace for two persons. It is about the size of a shipping container and is independent of external water and energy supplies. Because the 'Self' module is easily transported and can be located almost anywhere without difficulty, it is particularly suitable for temporary use, for example as a mobile research station, an event organizer’s dwelling and office, or as an inhabited advertising vehicle, to name but a few possibilities,” experts from Empa and Eawag note in an official press release accompanying the unveiling of the new concept.
According to the technical-specification sheet, the container is about 7.7 meters long, has a height of about 3.2 meters, and a width of 3.45 meters. These compact dimensions ensure that it can easily be transported via helicopter or truck, to a number of exotic destinations that would otherwise be unaccessible to similar projects. Researchers working in difficult terrains could benefit from such a home tremendously, as it would provide them with a greater degree of autonomy than that they currently have. Even the water supply – which is collected from rainwater – is recycled, especially the gray water. This is a lightly polluted run-off from the sink in the bathroom.
The two designers of 'Self,' Bjoern Olsson and Sandro Macchi, made a point of teaching people the value of economy. The level of available water is clearly visible through a transparent tank in the living room, so that people always know how much of the liquid they are consuming. “Abstract consumption figures don’t actually mean very much. To change our behavior we need to make resource usage tangible and clearly visible,” the two say. At this point, the team is considering adding hydrogen capabilities to the module, in the sense that they want electrolysis to produce hydrogen for cooking and heating. All of this needs to be done in an environmentally friendly way, they add.
“Hardly any of the features of the ‘Self’ module reflect the current state of the art – nearly everything is made of specially designed and manufactured components, one example being the shell of the container which is made of glass fiber reinforced polymer sandwich. Thermal insulation is provided by high performance vacuum insulating panels, a heat exchanger warms the fresh air using heat extracted from the exhaust air stream, the water filter operates almost without using any electric power and the toilet consumes just one liter of water per flushing cycle,” the press release goes on to say.
“For the foreseeable future the 'Self' module will be used as a technology demonstrator and be exhibited at trade fairs and shows. Later Empa intends to utilize the module as living quarters for guests or as a research station in the mountains,” it concludes.
