LIFEHAUS is a project that seeks to develop energy neutral, low-cost, self-sufficient dwellings.
Its aim is to promote the use of locally procured natural, recycled and unprocessed building material, all the while reintroducing ancestral building and survival techniques.
Models of this prototype will range in their application, from the emergency relief dwelling to the more luxurious; passing through the more affordable homes for those who wish to lead a more peaceful, off-the-grid life.
LIFEHAUS strives to adapt to and ultimately resolve many of the problems from which the region suffers -as do many nations of the developing world- by addressing the following fields:
ECOLOGICAL
- Water conservation: The LIFEHAUS project promotes the process of rainwater harvesting and its reuse threefold, so as to economize the precious and increasingly rare resource.
- Agriculture: LIFEHAUS by design helps sustain the practice of organic, hydroponic and aquaponic agriculture; preventing the pollution of ground water reserves.
- Energy conservation: Petrolium extracted combustibles are replaced with passive natural practices, mainly powered by the greatest and cleanest energy source: sunlight.
- Grey Energy conservation: The use of upcycled and local materials reduces transports, and new building materials production.
- Integration: Each LIFEHAUS is individually designed to mold discretely and respectfully into its surroundings, with a mindful approach to minimize the structure’s visual impact, so that both dwelling and natural surrounding act as one.
SOCIO-POLITICAL
- Due to exponential densification of regional populations we aim to reduce the total land surface needed for an all year round entirely self-sufficient existence, through modern vertical agricultural techniques, aquaponic and hydroponic agriculture.
- By using local, recycled and upcycled material for construction, new job opportunities based on basic skills and traditional knowledge of old generations will be created.
- The LIFEHAUS project meets the survival needs of the developing world as it improves the quality of life at the bottom end of the spectrum. The LIFEHAUS design can provide comfortable low energy cost dwellings for war and natural catastrophe refugees going back to their destroyed homes.
CULTURAL
- Unearthing ancient and regional building methods and ancestral knowledge, thereby reinforcing communal interdependence
- The project amounts to an ecological awareness campaign, in a region where such ideas are very much needed.
- The LIFEHAUS project will serve to raise ecological awareness in an area most susceptible to the repercussions of climate change, through the effective demonstration of its ability to integrate fully into nature and adapt to its surroundings.
The average cost of a LIFEHAUS is HALF the price of a conventional house if self-constructed, and 10% less if done by professionals.
Its added value comes in the form of its optimized passive heating and cooling systems economizing the cost of the heating/cooling installations (AC, boiler, radiators, heating pipes, etc.) and the amount of fuel and electricity that is spent yearly on conventional methods of heating/cooling, as well as the electricity spent in a regular dwelling for the attainment of the same thermal comfort.
Although there is a profit to be made, this project is not about making a profit, nor should it be. It’s about changing our lifestyles in a sustainable.
Its value comes in the form of having a dwelling that provides basic thermal comfort and the choice to plug to the grid or not.
At the end it’s a matter of choice; either we think about the quality of life of future generations and the survival of our species or we participate in the digging of our own grave.
