Dyson Institute Village was built in 2019 on the outskirts of Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England, to provide on-campus student housing for the

Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology is a private institution of higher education in England, founded in 2017 by James Dyson and based at the Dyson (company), Dyson technology campus in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. Students work in a posit ...

. The village was designed as a number of stacked studio apartment modules by London architects

WilkinsonEyre WilkinsonEyre is an international architecture practice based in London, England. In 1983 Chris Wilkinson (architect), Chris Wilkinson founded Chris Wilkinson Architects, he partnered with Jim Eyre (architect), Jim Eyre in 1987 and the practice ...

, and modelled after

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Habitat 67 Habitat 67, or simply Habitat, is a housing complex at Cité du Havre, on the Saint Lawrence River, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, designed by Israeli-Canadian- American architect Moshe Safdie. It originated in his master's thesis at the School of Ar ...

. The pods are constructed from

cross-laminated timber Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a subcategory of engineered wood panel product made from gluing together at least three layers of solid-sawn lumber at angles to each other. It is similar to plywood but with distinctively thicker laminations (o ...

(CLT) and each pod is wrapped in aluminium. A feature of the modular system is that each pod is connected to the others with only four bolts.

Design

The pods which make up the village were designed for fast construction. Each pod was made from cross-laminated timber, and they were prefabricated. The outside of each pod is wrapped in aluminium. The units were manufactured in Scotland complete with furniture and electrical fittings, and then delivered to

Hullavington Airfield Royal Air Force Hullavington, or more simply RAF Hullavington, was a Royal Air Force station located at Hullavington, near Chippenham, Wiltshire, England. The station opened in June 1937 and was primarily used for training. It closed on 31 Marc ...

(a nearby Dyson site) to be completed. Originally WilkinsonEyre's director said they wanted to paint the structure, but

James Dyson Sir James Dyson (born 2 May 1947) is a British inventor, industrial designer, farmer, and business magnate who founded the Dyson company. He is best known as the inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the principle of cyclonic ...

preferred wood interiors. The pods were inspired by the Habitat 67 housing development designed in Montreal, Canada, by

Moshe Safdie Moshe Safdie (; born July 14, 1938) is an architect, urban planner, educator, theorist, and author. He is well known for incorporating principles of socially responsible design throughout his six-decade career. His projects include cultural, ed ...

. The developers hoped to inspire a feeling of community with the arrangement of the village. Visually the pods appear to be a combination of retro and future. Each pod has a large front window facing the communal building called the Roundhouse, which has a cafe, a screening room and a gathering area. The pods are arranged in a semi-circle facing it. The architects stated that the Roundhouse was meant to be the central "social and education hub" of the campus. The pods were designed to be sustainable and healthy, with proper ventilation.

Engineering

The 63 pods have no steel structural support and are arranged two and three high. Several of the stacks feature a pod which is

cantilevered A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

out . Each pod measures . Every six pods share a kitchen, a laundry area and a storage area. Structural engineering of the pods and their interconnections was by Glasgow-based Design Engineering Workshop. The cross-laminated timber presented a challenge because of the natural differences in wood stiffness. Orthotropic plates were utilized to cross the timber in three directions for structural stability. Only four bolts connect each pod to the others. The four bolts can be installed by one worker in ten minutes.

References

External links

Dyson Village, SCIA User Contest 2020
– via YouTube
Dyson Village, Malmesbury
– Design Engineering Workshop (structural engineers) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dyson Institute Village Buildings and structures completed in 2019 Buildings and structures in Wiltshire Brutalist architecture in England Malmesbury University and college residential buildings

Design

Engineering

See also

References

External links