DarX's Self-Sufficient Zero commended in this year’s Norbord SterlingOSB Zero/RIBAJ competition

DarX’s was one of the few proposals that considered interventions on an urban scale.

Self-Sufficient Zero by DarX/ Alper and Yegana Dilek

Interesting because of the way it embraces technology, Alper and Yegana Dilek’s concept enables homeowners to build up their own property by stacking pre‑designed, standard-sized OSB units on top of one another.

Ground-floor units are designed to activate the street, with consideration given to how the spaces between multiple such buildings would also work.

Covid-19, the designers argue, brought home the importance of self-sufficiency and the digitisation of delivery for goods and manufacturing. The proposal allows residents to shape their units – in an urban or rural context – using an online process to select plots in a self-design project and completing them with furniture selection. Rooflights function as a delivery intake for a drone network while photovoltaic panels provide off-site energy. Other features include farming facilities such as hydroponics and greenhouses.

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The unit as another iteration of ‘live/ work/grow’.
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Units are combined to produce a nascent sense of a public realm.

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‘In a city context, these stackable components work well,’ observed David Connacher while Kristofer Adelaide commended the aspiration to building a self-empowered community, saying: ‘I feel I could walk through this neighbourhood.’ Stephen Proctor noted a resemblance to the medieval tower houses of San Gimignano, Italy – fine praise indeed.

Off Grid 2030 was produced in association with Norbord