PANEL-LANDTM
Medium: Construction System
Academic work completed at MIT
Year: 2023
Insructor: Xavi Aguirre
Stick frame construction is a kit-of-parts made up of 2x4 stud framing and layers of 4'x'8' panels nailed and adhered on top. The 4'x8' panels serve a critical role, providing insulation, rigidity, watertightness, and finishes. There is design intelligence in this kit, which allows for fast, modular construction using easily transportable pieces. This system has proliferated throughout the U.S., but produces a lot of waste because the assembly cannot be taken apart and must demolished after a single use.
PANEL-LAND is a proposal for a new construction system for endlessly disassemblable, customizable, swappable stick frame architecture.
A catalog of new, never-before-seen varieties of 4'x8' panels and accompanying "chunk" attachments -- which boast properties like transparency, bounciness, slipperiness, waterproofness, and more -- allow for custom panel "sandwiches" outside of the norm that we see today.
PANEL-LAND's patented structural system is designed to gently hold layers of 4'x8' panels into place without permanently adhering or damaging them. Building layers can easily be de-laminated and re-layered, meaning that renovations or programmatic changes only require a swapping out of panels, rather than complete demolition.
