Homeshell | Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

The first Homeshell has been constructed in the Royal Academy’s Annenberg Courtyard, to coincide with the exhibition Richard Rogers RA: Inside Out, but also to provoke debate about how architectural and construction innovation together might help us meet the UK’s housing needs. This three-and-half-storey building will arrive as flat-pack panels on one truck and will take only 24 hours to assemble on site. Homeshell is constructed using a building system called Insulshell, (developed by Sheffield Insulations Group (SIG) and Coxbench). This system is so flexible that it can be used for many building types from homes, apartments and schools to factories and health centres. Examples of this approach can be seen in RSHP’s housing project at Oxley Woods in Milton Keynes, but the design has now been developed further by RSHP, while SIG have improved the properties of the system, to make it even more energy efficient, sustainable and flexible. The Olympic Velodrome at London 2012 was also constructed using this method. 13 August – 8 September 2013