Wikihabitat

WikiHabitat is a solution that allows affordable housing stocks to be expanded in European cities in a faster, cheaper, greener and more inclusive way. It proposes doing so especially in central neighborhoods, which suffer more from rising rent prices. Guaranteeing the population's access to homes in these neighborhoods can reduce pollution as they are more walkable and cyclable and better served by public transport. WikiHabitat aims to equip them with a large number of small residential developments, by filling up empty plots or properties that have not exhausted their buildability.

Moreover, the WikiHabitat system makes it possible to overcome the use of highly polluting materials such as reinforced concrete through the prefabrication of wooden light-frame modules. They offer a diverse and versatile range of two-dimensional components that are easy to transport and adapt to a large number of different geometries. In addition, they minimize the use of material and include high-performance thermal insulation. Their off-site prefabrication shortens execution times, increases quality standards and improves working conditions in the construction sector. They are assembled on site in record time, using dry, reversible joints that facilitate the maintenance or transformation of the building, as well as the disassembly and reuse of its components. In addition, WikiHabitat is committed to bioclimatic management solutions that maximize the water and energy efficiency of homes. Among them, passive conditioning systems, photovoltaic self-generation, gray water circuits or monitoring of indicators using sensors stand out.

A pilot test of the WikiHabitat strategy called WikiHousing Barcelona is already materializing on a central plot of land belonging to the Barcelona City Council. The prefabrication tasks have involved a hundred young people with very diverse backgrounds in a participatory and upskilling process. In autumn 2024, the prefabricated modules will be assembled on the site in less than four weeks. But, beyond this first experimental test, WikiHabitat offers a standardized, replicable and scalable solution capable of becoming a systematic tool of urban improvement. On the one hand, it reduces building costs by achieving economies of scale regardless of the size of each development. On the other hand, the system is based on open source smart building technologies capable of generating many quality jobs and bestowing an inclusive dimension to the necessary 4.0 construction revolution. In this way, the system can contribute to promoting the relocation of industrial activities with high social demand and low environmental impacts.

E-mail contact: hola@wikihousing.eu

Instagram: @wikihousing & @straddle3

X: @wikihousing & @straddle3

Websites: https://wikihousing.eu (Spanish) & https://straddle3.net (English)