Toronto, Canada
TYYZ’s 10m2 is a shelter building made without a conventional frame system due to the trademarked GRIP Metal Press Lamination System with the first being the Steam Canoe Structure built as part of the Toronto Winter Station Event.
The 10m2 project has been awarded a 2022 Green Good Design Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Primarily inspired by the canoes and the rich history of the indigenous first nations and early exploration of North America, the shelter was built to cut through the harsh wind of the cold winter.
The two shells are held by a multipoint thermally disconnected support system at 45 and 90-degree turns.
While the Steam Canoe was an exposed pavilion, this second building is fully enclosed and insulated with the insulation forming an integral void filling part in the structure.
Grip Metal (“Metal Velcro”) is fabricated by pulling microscopic hairs on the surface of the metal, either on one side or both sides of the metal, to be mechanically fastened into any material that is softer than the metal through a press lamination system.
The benefit of press lamination is the fact that the adhesion is achieved without the need for any chemical glues, heat, or curing time.
A rolling press is utilized to press the workpieces together to form any straight or curved elements, instantly creating a metal-reinforced structural wood shell material.
The shells for the prefabricated structure are created so that they can be nested into each other and transported on the back of a truck. It takes nine sections to form the 10m2 (100sqft) structure.
The small format of the components not only allows for ease in shipping but also allows this structure to be carried easily by two people and brought into urban infill areas where limited width would require large cranes to lift anything larger into backyards.
Larger structures can be formed by adding additional sections, however, the 10m2 is chosen as the initial design as it can be built without the requirement of any building permit in most areas due to the small size and being without major plumbing.
There is only a provision for a multi-functional sink.
The structure is set on a platform supported by four helical piers adding to the sustainability concept by allowing for easy removal of the structure in the future.
Typical small buildings are fabricated utilizing a wood or metal stud system, due to the structural integrity of the thin shells there is no requirement for a frame as the skin acts as the structure.
Similar to the revolution in the car industry with a Unibody the shell takes on the structural integrity and environmental skin.
The inner and outer shells are mounted apart with thermally disconnected fasteners to minimize heat loss in the assembly, and the void is filled with sustainable hemp insulation allowing adequate R-value for moderate to cold climates.
The building is provided with two types of solar components supplying heat and electricity.
PV panels provide electricity and an evacuated tube solar hydronic system guides warm water onto the floor or diverts the water into the earth below as a ground heat sink into a helical loop during the warm months, this occurs when the heat cannot be utilized inside the building.
The glass façade seals the building on the entry side with an integrated HRV ring system with a slow velocity air ventilation felt-based filter.
The skylight above the upper bed location houses the evacuated hydronic system that can be shielded from the sunlight by the movable PV solar panels in the months of extreme solar impact.
Fabrication of the unit is in progress.
The prototype is to be completed in spring 2022 and commercially available prefabricated units are scheduled for 2023.
The collaboration is a joint venture in architecture, structure, sustainable material innovation, and carbon reduction minimizing the amount of timber through
Reinforced Structural Laminated Shells and Hemp Fibers, maximizing each material to perform best in this innovative assembly method.
Project: 10m2
Architects: TYYZ
Design Team: Ray Arbesman, Montu Khokhar, Albert Bachli, Mark Lavelle, Mike McGuire, Zell Artan, Curtis Ho, Jason Wong, Martin Mojo, Yvonne Tran, Jaewon Kim, Mary Bui , and Mark Tholen
Client/Manufacturer: Nucap Industries
Photographer: Mark Tholen
