Bradfield finalist’s revolutionary plan for movable homes to solve Sydney’s housing crisis
REVOLUTIONARY modular homes that can be moved and rearranged within apartment blocks are the dramatic centrepiece of Caleb Niethe’s plan to solve the housing crisis and improve high density living.
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REVOLUTIONARY modular homes capable of being moved and rearranged within apartment blocks are the centrepiece of Caleb Niethe’s plan to solve the housing crisis and improve high-density living.
The “bookshelf” apartment blocks will change the face of Sydney housing by allowing residents to design and build their own home to provide a more powerful sense of ownership than thousands of identical “cookie cutter” units.
Mr Niethe, a first-year architecture student at Sydney University and Lendlease Bradfield Urbanisation Scholarship finalist, said his new-age apartment block will allow home units to easily be installed or removed from the exterior of the building. The units will enable design and technology upgrades without collateral damage to other parts of the building.
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With Sydney’s growing population set to strain infrastructure, the 20-year-old believes a new approach to high-density housing is vital to improve residents’ lifestyles.
His modular apartments are complemented by an underground electric transport network with compartments that break away to deliver passengers to specific destinations.
Piezoelectric flooring will convert the kinetic energy of commuters’ footsteps into usable electricity similar to the system used in Japan’s Shibuya Station to power the station’s signage.
Mr Niethe, from Coffs Harbour on the state’s north coast, believes Sydney’s citizens want a more invested relationship with their city.
“In order to make living in cities affordable and ensure people are in the vicinity of employment and infrastructure housing must be high density,” he says.
His multifaceted strategy targets housing, transport, energy consumption and the environment.
“In my city of the future cars and above ground roads gradually would be phased out.
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“In the place of cars an underground public transport network would be established.”
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