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Every design includes integrated gray-water recycling, heat recovery, solar water heating, and integrated building services designed for future flexibility.

Bell Travers Willson has been able to reduce the separation between the design and construction professions, comparing their process to that of product manufacturing, for which design and production usually run in tandem within the same organization. They believe their systems and processes would not be possible in a conventional construction-industry partnership of architects and builders.

Bell says he was inspired by reading Refabricating Architecture by Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake. The book advocates using the same design techniques as the aircraft industry but points out that architecture must take on not only the design and construction methodologies but also the economic structures of manufacturing.

Now is the prefect time to make this change, according to Bell. Manufacturers of computers, cars, and books have demonstrated that efficient production no longer means strict repetition. But if architects want to change the way they design, he notes, they'll also need to change the way they do business.

The Digital House is the culmination of two-and-a-half years of research and development by the architects Bell Travers Willson, made possible by funding from the London Development Agency, with the aim of enhancing traditional house building through the use of digital technology.

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Blowing insulation into a wall cassette. Photo: Bell Travers Willson Rough interior after adding insulation. Photo: Bell Travers Willson Demonstration model during construction. Photo: Bell Travers Willson Demonstration model with siding. Photo: Bell Travers Willson   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.