Drawer House (Casa Gaveta) | Anabela Macieira

DRAWER HOUSE

“Casa Gaveta” (The Drawer House) is a house that can be extended by 50% of its initial footprint. Depending on the spatial needs, of its inhabitants, it can expand or contract. 

The project is an experimental project which investigates how a house can respond to the changing lifestyle of each season by adaptive transformation. The main change that takes place is its expansion during the spring/summer period, and its contraction in the autumn/winter period. These transformations are an easy process, even for elderly people as they are operated just by the push of a button. Anabela got awarded with the WIDER innovation prize for this idea. She has submitted a patent on this idea and is waiting for an investor to come along in order to turn this design and plan into a real house. 

Casa Gaveta consists of two modules: the basic module and the complex module. Relating to their state of transformation, each modules can be further categorised into an open mode or a closed mode. 

Spatial arrangement of the house

Casa Gaveta, according to the original idea of Anabela Macieira (Dipl.-Ing), the basic module in its closed mode is basically a square floor plan that can be considered a single housing unit (see Appendix floor plan). When in its open mode, the area of the house is expanded. The complex mode refers to when a combination of basic modules is formed in order to create a larger floor plan (or area) when needed. 

The opening and closing of the movable parts is comprised of three types of mechanisms, described in depth in the previous phase of the Casa Gaveta project, which we have submitted on March 2015.

Described briefly, the first mechanism involves the movement of the houses’ south facade, along with side walls, which slides into appropriate runners with the help of hydraulic pistons. 

The second mechanism is an electric mechanism (rack and motor mechanism) that is used to provide a roof for the extended part of the house.

The third type of mechanism is related to a slab of the extended part, with a scissor- (or foldable spring-) like mechanism which elevates the floor revealing and raising furniture from below. 

The basement of the house is used mainly as storage space, containing all the proper auxiliary equipment for all the mechanical and electrical systems used in the house, as well as the extra furniture for when the house is in its closed mode. Some of these systems require ventilation. We propose this ventilation to be done mechanically, but if applicable it could be done naturally with a four-angle formation.