Technology enriched with human creativity plus a noble calling guide a group of young architects, home designers, artists, and structural engineers called the BLOC in exploring invention and innovations through modular type homes with green undertone as value added.
“Everybody wants to be part of Bahay Kalinga. But maybe in my thought, we can build greener, better homes for the homeless for a change by using technology in today’s modern day modular type houses,” explained Philipp Purino, the brains behind Modular Impermanent Building System (MIBS).
MIBS is an innovative do-it-yourself, reusable, and transferable main frame building system similar to the principles of Lego blocks. It is a nuts-and-bolts-free type of building system yet sturdy, which can be attributed to the strategic structural design of its main frame system.
The main frame system is a set of steel frames that forms the structural appearance of the house. It can be compared to a human skeleton.
MIBS is similar to assembling a toy but on a scaled up model. The main frame system’s innovative design enables easier assembly and requires a minimum building competency.
It is very efficient and since there are existing prefabricated concrete materials for the walls, beams, and trusses in almost all localities, MIBS can be built anywhere.
The modular design can be modified and redesigned. Its materials can be reused unlike conventional houses. It is also designed to promote a greener way of living by incorporating solar energy panels on its roofs. It also reduces energy consumption resulting to lower carbon footprints.
MIBS saves owners time and money in assembling the modular house. Purino said a three-level prototype house approximately 70 sqm. can be built in just a week.
“This project,” Purino said, “also encourages the people in a particular community to practice our old tradition of bayanihan where people in the community help each other in building a neighbor’s house.”
Purino added that his idea was basically patterned after the “bahay kubo” or nipa hut - an indigenous Philippine house mostly made of bamboo poles and thatched roofs from dried nipa leaves.
“If Henry Ford revolutionized the automobile industry, and Steve Jobs the computer, MIBS would be the new necessity of the 21st century and this will come in the Philippines," Purino said.
He also noted MIBS’ structural reliability and conformity to the country’s building codes. But he indicated that its structural integrity is limited to 15 years only.
Recently, Purino’s team along with volunteer workers built a two-unit 160-sqm MIBS dormitory for Anawim, a center for abandoned elderly in Montalban, Rizal.
Purino is working on the design of a medium sized commercial lot in Clark, Pampanga into a world class MIBS complex that will showcase a number of modular type buildings. The project’s estimated cost is P150 million.
The MIBS is a finalist at the regional level of the National Invention Contest and Exhibits 2009 organized by the Department of Science and Technology’s Technology Application and Promotion Institute.
A proposed Modular Impermanent Building System design that hopes to solve global problems in housing and in the environment through its green, reusable, and transferable impermanent modular houses.
