Casa Quattro answers the call for sustainability with wood, straw, and cork

Italian architect Luca Compri designed a barn-sized house within the quaint city of Magnago, Italy, product of supplies it’s possible you’ll not anticipate. Set towards a lush backdrop, the home consists of wooden, rice straw, and most curiously, cork. This cork board is much from cheesy, nevertheless, and hoped to reply the shopper’s want for a dwelling that was not solely nearer to nature but in addition minimized environmental influence. LCA Architetti used these recyclable supplies to advertise sustainability efforts within the face of local weather considerations and the post-covid rural life-style the shopper sought, realizing Casa Quattro.

The cork pan materials for the panels was harvested from the bark of the cork oak tree and used for thermal and acoustic functions. Selecting this straightforward and sustainable materials additionally allowed for the development timeline to be considerably shortened. All the timeframe for the set up of the cork facade, together with the metallic panels, took solely two weeks. Every panel measures roughly 40 x 20 inches. A peek behind the facade of Casa Quattro solely results in additional surprises: The home is thermally insulated utilizing bales of rice straw. Compri is keen about how rice cultivation can influence sustainable design and the development sector; the straw used was collected from rice vegetation discarded by native farmers.

Whereas the efficiency of any such insulation continues to be being explored in America, several studies have been published stating its safe use in high-performance walls. The easy house is self-powered by the power generated from its rooftop photo voltaic panels and heated in-part passively by daylight.

“The purchasers needed a house in direct contact with nature, a wholesome and environmentally-friendly constructing, the place they might benefit from the little issues,” stated Compri, founding father of LCA. “The home needed to be born from the earth and have the colors of the earth, of the cultivated fields that encompass it, the composition is intentionally easy and primitive, the mannequin was the previous barns nonetheless current within the space.”