THE COMMUNICATIVE FORCE OF A PROTOTYPE: TESTING TECHNOLOGICAL DESIGN RESEARCH IN ARCHITECTURE

The design of a small house becomes the “mise en forme” of a space in which "essential" equipment, energy performance, architectural qualities, economic and environmental costs are linked to the ease and immediacy of construction: a human centred design, "adapted" to users. The "Petite-cabane" was the documenting tool for the technological design research of the ZEBtwZEEB research group and the European Researchers' Night 2019 (Sharper 2019) was the ideal scenario for the involvement of a wide and heterogeneous public. The event took place inside one of the courtyards of the Royal Palace of Caserta where the demonstrator building was built: a 3x3 m single-user minimum residential unit made with the Light Gauge Steel Building System (LGS) produced with Controlled Automatically Roll Forming Machine, for which high technological and energy performance envelope packages were designed. The exhibition of the prototype allowed to spread scientific knowledge, create learning curiosities around the world of research, tell about the innovative project carried out and dialogue with the community not only scientific but also with school students, teachers, and all interested parties. In a logic of "Design Thinking", the prototype, which generally represents the final phase of the process, in this case represented the "trait d'union" between the research and training worlds. By its communicative power, it has become a tangible demonstration of the technical and scientific principles it underpins and, at the same time, a means of communicating environmentally aware behaviour and a tool for learning about best design practices.