Project: Housing and residential development for increased growth (Boost)

More about the project

The BOOST project is a joint venture between RISE Glass, Träcentrum, Jönköping University and Linnaeus University. The aim is to develop and establish collaborations between metadesign, technical prototypes and business model innovation. The starting point is building and living with glass and wood, for innovations that can be commercialised.

BOOST is a large cross-border collaboration initiative for housing and residential development. The project started in the autumn of 2016, with SEK 9 million in granted funds. The total budget is SEK 18 million, half of which comes from the European Union's structural funds and the other half from regional actors.

The project is part of the collaboration project Smart Housing Småland as well as the research conducted in the research group Wood building technology.

Three focus areas

BOOST will focus on three areas:

• Business model innovation, where we will develop a spectrum of business models for newly-produced housing suitable for small and medium-sized companies, with focus on the user. This is led by Jönköping University.
• Metadesign, where we will explore the housing needs at the intersection of migrants, an ageing population and students in relation to society, companies, organisations, and sustainability, and develop new proposals. This is led by Linnaeus University.
• Technical prototypes, where we will develop glass and wood prototypes in order to design housing that meets the needs of the users. This is led by RISE Glass.

Metadesign

This part-project focuses on metadesign and takes a systemic perspective on building, housing and life at home.

Metadesign is a way of working that strives to provide a systematic and holistic understanding of the housing situation, using as its starting point a broad perspective on sustainability. The design researchers will explore the housing needs at the intersection of migrants, an ageing population and students in relation to society, companies, organisations, and sustainability, and develop new proposals.
Our hope is that housing actors in the region will be able to work closely with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

"We want to look at building, housing and life at home from a broader perspective, and make the most of the diversity in our population. There must be an interplay between environmental, economic, and sociocultural factors in order to create a society that is as sustainable as possible for all", says Mathilda Tham and Sara Hyltén-Cavallius, projects managers.

Technical prototypes

This part-project is conducted in collaboration with RISE and will develop prototypes and variants of technical solutions. At Linnaeus University, we work with connections for module construction; concretely with connections between floor and wall components. These two components are treated both individually, in order to be able to produce them, as well as in combination in completed housing. The part-project studies connections with consideration to the transfer of force and its stiffness properties. Variants of current systems will be studied and further developed.

We will also work with load-bearing timber-glass components. Of particular interest are load-bearing timber-glass walls that are to be used as gable walls in module houses. This results in large window sections without necessarily having to add a load-bearing layer. This technical solution has already been tested at Linnaeus University, but focus now is on the attachment to the building itself. Walls of this type are primarily used to ease the horizontal load from wind loads and to carry the loads down to the foundation in a secure way.

Contact for this part-project is Michael Dorn.

Facts about the project

Project managers at Linnaeus University
Mathilda Tham and Sara Hyltén-Cavallius (project managers metadesign)

Other project members at Linnaeus University
Michael Dorn (contact person technical prototypes), Åsa Ståhl

Participating organisations
RISE Glas (project owner), Linnaeus University, Jönköping University, Träcentrum

Financier
Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth

Timetable
September 30, 2016–February 28, 2020

Subjects
Structural engineering (department of building technology, faculty of technology)
Design (department of design, faculty of arts and humanities)

Website
smarthousing.nu/boost

Staff