These are our last week notes of the year and as well as celebrating all the community has done in 2023, here is a (short) summary of our year at WikiHouse.
Skylark 0.2
In March we released Skylark 0.2, removing bow ties and combs, and including a new 42° pitch roof. We also launched our updated Guide for Structural Engineers, including a handy section on our website where you can read all the research we have carried out.
Engineering, design and services
Gabriele, our Engineering Lead, recorded a series of videos for structural engineers, delving deep into topics such as calculating beams and walls. He is always up for answering engineering questions, simply start a post in the community and tag him @Gabriele. (He is also taking requests if you want him to create a video on specific topics!)
This year we were delighted to work with partners at the University of Edinburgh to test finger joints (these joints are present in almost all WikiHouse blocks), and Imperial College London to test the performance of 9 WikiHouse beams made with UK grown Sterling OSB. All test results are available in our research page. If you are interested in how we test WikiHouse blocks, check this short video made by our friends at the University of Edinburgh for COP28.
Amber joined the team in March as our Projects Lead. She works with clients using WikiHouse, ensuring they are able to bring their designs to life. She has also done an amazing job revamping our Design Guide, a really helpful starting place for anyone thinking of designing with Skylark. In September, Amber hosted our very first WikiHouse Design Essentials session - would you like to see more of these sessions next year?
If you have a WikiHouse design you want to discuss with Amber, check out the list of services we offer and if you are interested in using any of them please contact us via the website.
Partners
Our friends in the Netherlands (watch this if you want to know about the WikiHouse neighbourhood in Almere) had a meet up in the summer with over 30 people attending to learn more about the WikiHouse Swift system. WikiHouse Swift also went through rigorous testing this year with the encouraging result that the system more than meets the requirements in the Building Decree for the Netherlands. The full report is here in Dutch.
Meanwhile in the UK, CNC Craft in Cornwall held a couple of in person WikiHouse training sessions, generously funded by the University of Exeter. Further up north, manufacturers Digital Woodoo held both in person and online sessions introducing people to WikiHouse and community building. Further up north still, in Scotland, our partners BE-ST transported Skylark blocks all the way to Shetland to introduce school children to digital construction, as well as retrofit, Passivhaus, and MMC.
These are 2 projects we have really enjoyed being part of this year:
The ForestTIA Project in Madagascar - funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, and aiming to improve forestry and timber engineering education, with WikiHouse being used to prototype a house made from OSB.
100 Factories - funded by the Forestry Commission's Timber in Construction Forestry Innovation Fund, the project will help to unlock the collective capacity of small, local manufacturers to produce modular WikiHouse timber building kits, made using wood grown within the UK.
Materials and cost
Reflecting on materials and sustainable choices, this year we switched our default blocks material to OSB. We love plywood and have used extensively, however, OSB is produced in the UK (where we are based) and therefore does not need to travel as far as plywood. Our choice is also based on testing we have carried out on the structural performance of OSB. If you want to know more, we have recorded a video summarising the testing carried out on both materials.
Talking of OSB, we also recorded our first assembly video of an OSB floor block, thanks to our friends at Hub in London. We have more lined up for the new year and if you are planning on assembling blocks and want to be featured, please give us a shout as we are always looking for examples.
Cost-wise, one of the most commonly asked questions when someone is considering building with WikiHouse is how much will it cost me? So to try to answer this, we created the cost calculator. The calculator provides a way to estimate the cost of using WikiHouse for your project and to understand how different materials, foundations, insulation etc affect your budget. You can change the size of your building, choose the level of fit out and finishes, and even decide whether you are going to assemble it yourself or not - and see the prices change as you go. The calculator is only available in £ at the moment but we have plans to change that to other currencies. Watch this space.
Events and build.wikihouse
At the beginning of November the WikiHouse team joined BE-ST Fest 23, the UK’s biggest festival for a zero-carbon built environment. We built and insulated WikiHouse blocks, and assembled a small structure with them. For many of the attendees it was the first time they had built blocks - and they were able to easily do so by following a simple set of instructions. It was a brilliant day and team effort!
Finally, in December we launched the Alpha version of the WikiHouse configurator, an online tool we have been developing over the last couple of years. Also known as build.wikihouse.cc, it enables anyone to rapidly design and customise buildings for on-demand manufacturing, and as you design, you can immediately see the estimated impact of your decisions on cost, performance and embodied carbon, based on the latest data.
build.wikihouse.cc is a working prototype - and we are looking for people within the worldwide WikiHouse community (you!) to help us test it - please tell us what you think.
password: skylark
And last but not least, our community events have been a joy to host - you can find all the recordings on our Youtube channel. We have been joined by community members from all over the world doing brilliant work with WikiHouse - from Chile to Colombia to New Zealand, and everywhere in between. WikiHouse was born in the UK and it’s so exciting to learn of people using and adapting it to their own contexts all over the world - if you haven’t already, do join the community and tell us about your work and plans. We look forward to bringing you more stories in 2024.
Coming in 2024
As I type this we are in the final stages of updating all our block files to Skylark 0.2.2 - to be released early in January next year. The release will include new blocks, as well as some updates on the cutting files. If you are currently designing with v 0.2.1, the new files will work with your design without any modifications.
Thank you for all of your hard work and efforts. It is totally appreciated.
I was wondering if there is a roadmap for the latest Skylark Blocks available on the new configurator?