Nadia Remmerswaal
Architectural Engineering
Tra-digital Hybrids
Winner STW Open Mind Challenge grant (€50.000)
The Global Health Organization estimates that in 2050 almost 75% of the world population will be living in cities. The biggest urban growth will take place in ‘informally build’ parts of the city, often known as slums. Municipalities can no longer govern this enormous growth so city inhabitants start constructing their own living quarters. Sufficient building knowledge is often lacking and dangerous situations occur in densely populated areas caused by earthquakes and yearly flooding. Tra-Digital Hybrids (TDH) is a concrete formwork-system based on CNC-milling technology. It enables self-construction in informal areas to build up safe, incremental housing up to four stories high. Ordinary formwork systems are complex in use, too expensive for the low- to mid-low income group and only suited to one shape of building plot. The TDH-system is not only cheaper, it can be customized to all shapes of building-plots and is both safe and easier in use.