A prefabricated modular building system
The Segmented Building System is an eco-friendly, energy efficient, prefabricated, modular building system. The building components consist of four-foot wide segments that vary in height, and can be delivered to the construction site in pieces, or as assembled profiles.
Each of the segments are made of structural insulated foam panels that are connected together to form a floor, walls, and a roof. The configurations of these panels can make full floor, walls, and roof profiles, and/or half floor, wall, and roof profiles. They can be prefabricated with various kinds of exterior cladding such as metal or cement composite boards, and/or they can be clad at the construction site, after the structural panels have been assembled. Any number of segments can be joined together to form any size structure. All of the segments are attached to a prefabricated perimeter concrete foundation shaped to receive the final configuration of the building. The variations of configurations possible with the Segmented Housing system are extreme, due to the ways in which the full profiles and half profiles can be nested together to grow the structures in any horizontal direction. This approach to construction can also allow for the profile segments to be taken apart and recon
figured again in a different way, at a different site. In this way the buildings can be recycled without having to destroy them.
Doors and windows can be placed anywhere and full or half segmented profiles can be shifted side by side with the open space closed off with large glass panels. This segment shifting can be used to form interior spaces that are accented by beautiful daylight pattern penetration and/or to form an unexpected architectural aesthetic. Solar panels of various kinds can also be attached to the segments in order to power the structures off of the utility grid.
The Segmented Building System explores ways in which a high degree of sustainable design flexibility can be introduced into the building industry at a potentially low cost.
About the author:
Michael Jantzen was born in 1948 and works in Santa Fe New Mexico as an artist/designer/photographer. It has been featured in thousands of articles in books, magazines, newspapers, and on the Web. His work has been shown in many galleries, and on various TV documentaries. It has also been exhibited at the National Building Museum, the Canadian Center for Architecture, the Harvard School of Design and Architecture, and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Most of his work merges art, architecture, technology, and sustainable design into one unique experience.
