Qasbaum is a modular building system designed for a broader concept of contemporary living including residential, hospitality, and co-working spaces in regeneration projects. Qasbaum comes from Qasbah + baum (wood in German) because it translates the Kasbah’s main features (comfort, security, privacy) into a modular system entirely realized with XLAM technology which is common in…
LCA, Life-cycle assessment (also known as life-cycle analysis, ecobalance, and cradle-to-grave analysis) is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life from-cradle-to-grave (i.e., from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling). [read more: wikipedia >>] Such a concept can be applied to Qasbaum’s modules, when…
Qasbaum’s plans Today the idea of a living module is recurring and it requires to take into proper consideration industrial processes, logistic organization, the limits of the ordinary transport systems and, not at least, the living comfort. The typical architectural responses to such a challenge consist in two opposite living concepts: the single house (happily…
Qasbaum originates from two well-known concepts. The first one is the “Qasbah” (or Kasbah), the typical tower house in Arabic countries that identifies those urban aggregates characterised by inner courts, narrow streets and substantially blind façades toward the external side. These mentioned Kasbah’s features are part of a strategic defensive approach in an area in which…
Qasbaum considers all ordinary transport conditions, unlike the US house movers. The transition between two phases implies both components first, and than modules, to be transported. XLAM panels are the most outsized elements in the “assembly kit”. To ensure a complete transportability of each element, Qasbaum avoids to use panels dimensioned like a whole wall, because a…
To emphasise the features of Qasbaum 01, a simulation places it in a working-class area situated in the historical centre in a Southern Italy city. Qasbaum 01 fills up an empty space, probably inherited by the Second World War bombings, now occupied by neglected warehouses. This location, potentially prestigious because it’s 300 meters from the sea, is…
The modules’ size matches those of standard containers to optimise the transport causes. In Qasbaum each module is equivalent to a living space (a bedroom, a kitchen, a living room, a study, etc). Therefore, each living space is not wider than 2,50 meters and not longer than 12.5 meters bringing the internal spaces to a…
A single bedroom (Module n° 4, second level) Inner finishings are essential. The larger part of the walls are cladding-free, except where wiring and pipes need to be hidden . Colours’ lightness is generally high to enhance the natural light’s diffusion, and with cool hues, whereas saturation could be both low (in the main spaces not…
The Qasbaum’s realization process consists of three distinct phases: The Production of each single component (walls, floors, pillars, beams, doors, flooring, staircases, fixtures, etc.). More than in the ordinary building process, the places of production can be located in several countries because each component will converge not directly to the building site, but to a…
Carlo Bughi | Architect 