Biobased materials form an important part of our material library, so we were very interested to see DDacha at Dutch Design Week 2015. DDacha is a biobased living concept, offering a compact house made from primarily biobased materials.

The first DDacha prototype (DDacha8) is a compact design. It is a dwelling for one or two individuals and is a single level house. According to its designers, this makes DDacha suitable for young singles or couples and it can be used as a granny flat, workspace, studio in the yard, guest house or holiday home.

Its footprint is a mere 8×8 meters and this modular concept is expandable in a 4 x 4 meter grid. Larger and smaller houses can be linked to form a range of different housing solutions.

Bio based and Cradle‐to-Cradle:

DDacha is designed as an organism and a dynamic compilation of material, environment and energy. It construction is almost entirely of wood, right down to wood fastenings and joinery in place of nails. Meanwhile, its roof is clad with moss and sedum. The main construction is a platinum certified c2c product and made from prefabricated components manufactured by Nur-Holz. These components were assembled in the manufacturer’s workshop and assembled on site. This results in rapid and secure construction. The entire frame of the first DDacha was erected within 8 hours.

Passive-Massive and Zero Energy:

DDacha is designed as a ‘passive-home’ and complies with the strict building codes and specifications in the Netherlands. DDacha is not site specific, but a climate specific design. The home is designed as a market focused product for North European Cfb and Dfb climate zones.

Energy-wise, the house has a passive inclination and is oriented base upon response to sun, wind and rain – from energy neutral to energy producing, thus moving from being a ‘Passivehouse’ to and ‘Activehouse’!