The Plastic House in Sweden by Unit Arkitektur AB

The Plastic House situated in a pure residential area near Göteborg Sweden, which has been thoroughly developed over the past 20 years with a great density of houses as a result. The material of the facade reflects the different activities inside the house. The ground floor houses mainly bedrooms, private dwelling and non-representative parts. The facades on this floor are clad with the most swedish of facades – the sawn spruce panelling. This is painted with a mixture of equal parts turpentine, linseed oil and tar – the traditional west coast protective treatment for their wooden landings. This floor has a conventional placement of windows. The upper floor is the representative part of the house clad with a flawless and proper facade material – 5 mm translucent white acrylic plastic or PMMA. A large balcony with a pragmatic steel construction and cheap railing compensates for the lack of outdoor space in connection to the living room.

The facade material for the upper floor consists of 5 mm opaque sheets of acrylic glass. Two factors are important to consider when designing with PMMA. The proposed technique was to attach the sheets with an acrylic foam tape with due dimensions in width, thickness and correct choice of foam. Tape thickness must be a third of the calculated thermal expansion; thus a tape of 2 millimeter thickness was selected. The tape was applied to a surface-treated steel batten since a galvanized surface is unstable over time. The PMMA sheeting is directly applied to the battens, thus dependent on the ambient temperature being at least 15?C at the time of application. – Unit Arkitektur AB Photos by Krister Engström