Green Towers - Aesthetic Affordable Housing

Hello, my name is Kavya Lalith, I'm a rising Senior, and my design is called The Green Towers. The idea behind the design stemmed from the question of how could I fully utilize the potential of the shipping containers?

I used to live in California, and one thing CA is known for is its earthquakes. Hence building codes are pretty strict, and building cheap housing compliant with these codes can be challenging.

However, building up is precisely what is needed in CA, where land is becoming scarce near cities, to fully utilize every last square foot.

To address this issue, I used shipping containers to build green towers. This structure uses only ~250 sqft in total of land but can house 8 individuals without requiring them to compromise on their quality of life.

This worked because shipping containers are designed to withstand tremors and shaking while stacked on top of each other. I utilized this key benefit to build an 8-story high affordable housing unit.

A unique feature of this tower is its living wall; I wanted to make this an aesthetically pleasing design, not a metal monster that no community would want. By incorporating a living wall on nearly 50% of its surface area, the structure was transformed into something people want to look at while also acting as an efficient cooling mechanism for CA's hot weather.

This tower is designed to be located in the suburban areas of Los Angeles, a prime location for putting this design to use while also having a slightly more moderate temperature than inland California.

Since everything was done online all you will need is access to the internet and Revit.

All my files are either from RevitCity, the bimstore, or from Autodesk's default content.

The first step was brainstorming!

What does the building need?

My initial plan was to design a self-sufficient community housing structure that would combine the idea of green towers with pop-up restaurants and farms, which would allow the residents to have an affordable home and make enough money to sustain themselves through the jobs the design itself would provide.

Unfortunately, I had to revise this idea because it would be too expensive to implement and go with housing units.

To start the design, I first made a plan on what to do:

1. Design the main container for living
2. Duplicate living containers
3. Create staircase and elevator
4. Create rooftop area

Things I knew I had to keep in mind were:

• Ventilation
• Solution: cross-ventilation with ducts.
• Cooling
• Solution: Living wall + cork insulation + cross ventilation + position of windows/patio will keep the container cool, with a simple floor fan providing enough cooling when it gets really hot.
• The building is designed to have the door facing east/west.
• This allows the patio and living wall sections to face the north/south.
• This encourages passive cooling by blocking direct sun rays.
• Living walls also tend to do better in indirect sunlight.
• Plumbing and electricity
• Solution: connected to the grid and the city's sewage system.
• Appearance
• Making sure the building was aesthetically pleasing was a vital issue.
• Communities that are primarily made of low-level buildings are hesitant to have high-rise buildings.
• Additionally, since the homes provided by these shipping containers are small in size, it is more crucial to make sure that they are aesthetically pleasing and make individuals want to live in them.
• Solution: Living walls + color/furniture choices
• The living walls combined with an aesthetically pleasing green on the exterior of the building makes the building appear more like a tall work of nature and less like a concrete eyesore.
• For the interior of these shipping container house modules, I used light-colored furniture and color choices to open up the space.
• Sustainability and Cost
• This was something that sometimes was a give and take. The more sustainable options were often more expensive, so I tried to take a moderate approach and look at the complete picture with the long-term implications when choosing materials.

I used Revit to create the design.

It was easier to create a container and use it in the design than a pre-made container. This was because the pre-made containers were considered a family instead of a direct part of the project, making it a little harder to work with them, especially since I had double-layered walls(the metal exterior and interior insulation).

For this step, I followed this tutorial and made a few essential modifications:

• I changed the timber beams to corten steel (the steel shipping containers are generally made from).
• I changed the exterior color to a dark green to match the living walls and make it more aesthetic.
• I changed the floor top layer to be made from bamboo, which is the eco-friendly but also reasonably priced alternative I chose to use for the flooring.

For this step, I created the structure of the container that will act as the home.

1. You need to add the interior walls
2. The picture with the materials within the walls is attached above, I made sure to leave ample space for plumbing and electrical. The interior wall diameters were 6 inches.
3. I made the patio by adding a floor section that was a semicircle attached to the container. I made sure it had the support needed by ensuring that I added enough supporting rafters underneath.
4. I also added the entrance door and sliding door.
5. Since there are two walls, you will need to cut out a section of the wall with the wall command.
6. I added the ducts by doing the same wall cut method as above.

Next, I added all the furniture for the house. (All files are linked above in supplies).

1. I first added the bunk bed/desk
2. Then I created the room for the bathroom
3. I added the glass shower and standard-size toilet
4. So, in order to maximize space, I decided just to have one sink, which is the kitchen sink but place it right next to the bathroom, so it serves as the bathroom sink too!
5. I added the door openings and curtain door, which makes it super easy to enter and exit the bathroom.
6. In order to prevent moisture from exiting the bathroom, I increased the shower height to make sure moisture was trapped right there.
7. For the kitchen, I used all the default kitchen appliances and made sure to include ample space, a stove, a refrigerator, and the appropriate type of cabinets.
8. I added shelving units that provide necessary storage without cluttering the space.
9. I added patio stools.
10. Finally, I added the living wall structures outside the living container!
11. I tried to go something as close as possible to the system used by this company.
12. It works really well for large-scale projects and is easy to maintain.
13. The model I made makes it appear like it will be separate sections of living walls. If implemented in real life, it would be a joint living wall that would span the entirety of the entire building in two sections.

1. I added the entrance deck with stairs from level 1 to 2 and space for an elevator.
2. I grouped the container, entrance deck, and stairs and duplicated it 8 times to make the levels.
3. Then I added the elevator and its shaft and entrance at each level.
4. Finally, I added the terrace, with a rooftop garden and picnic tables for people to chill in!
5. Plus, it would help cool the container underneath it.

{The pic for this one doesn't include any of the plants or many colors because my computer wasn't able to render it in Revit}

I used the Enscape plug-in in Revit to render the building.

Thank you so much!

Also, thank you for extending the deadline, I just recently found out about the competition, so I really appreciate that!