VOiD
What if Henry Moore designed architecture?
In response to a call for architectural solutions in sustainable futures, ABCDEFGHUMAN proposes a model of responsive design and regeneration: conceptual architecture informed by ecological intelligence, draught tolerance, and a return to configurative shape-shifting interiors.
The purpose is not to produce fully autonomous objects, but to establish a more considered relationship between self-sufficient structures and challenged landscapes.
CONCEPT
As a scalable project, VOiD™ unfolded indirectly with a wider interest in the effect of the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate, Kent — how a single cultural building shifted the perception of a place. Its presence didn't just connect people with art; it enriched Margate socially, culturally, and economically.
As a personal objective, VOiD™ sits somewhere between that building and intervention, where architecture is used to provide for, rather than simply occupy. In our design, integration relies on renewable energy systems — solar gain optimisation, rainwater harvesting, off-grid generation — if the impacts of climate-change are to be mitigated. Equally, cleaner strategies are increasingly necessary as the UK works toward its net zero built-environment targets for 2050.
TECHNOLOGY
‘R—101’ by VOiD™ — is a black sculptured shell built the way most ambitious modular buildings; as finished volumetric units, unlike site-poured construction.
Each shell module — walls, floor, ceiling, services — is fabricated indoors under controlled conditions, then delivered and craned onto the plinth as a near-complete unit. Black glass (solar photovoltaics) harvests energy during sunlight.
The interior intelligently shape-shifts to appreciate functionality. Hong Kong architect Gary Chang's own 32sqm apartment, the ‘Domestic Transformer,’ uses a similar micro-system of walls on tracks that relocate through the day, turning one footprint into what he describes as up to 24 different room configurations — organised around activities (cooking, bathing, sleeping) rather than fixed rooms.
PLINTH
The underbelly of the shell — a Moore-inspired plinth — is a large-capacity water tank, sized to harvest rainwater through the wetter seasons and hold it through the dryer seasons. That filtered, stored water does three jobs: it irrigates drought-tolerant planting, provides an off-grid water supply, and feeds a pressurised sprinkler system with its own dedicated source to defend and protect against fire.
Under BS 9251:2021, a single dwelling needs 1,000–1,500 litres of stored water for a 10-minute minimum supply where mains pressure can't be relied on. On a remote, flood-prone or off-grid site, that reserve isn't a safeguard — it's a precondition for developing there at all. The plinth holds it, doubling as a foundation and the water infrastructure it depends on.
PHOTOVOLTAICS
Rather than solar panels on a roof, BIPV (Building-Integrated Photovoltaics) replaces the glazing itself — the panel is the window. R—101 uses this to turn its own envelope into the power source. It's a proven model, not experimental: Onyx Solar's Black Box in Ávila, Spain runs entirely on black opaque PV glass, cutting heating and cooling demand by 53% with a payback under three years. Cambridge-based Polysolar has supplied BIPV glazing across UK sites since 2010, with typical paybacks of 5–20 years depending on application.
Because BIPV is integrated rather than a single fixed product, opacity can vary by elevation rather than by structure. The faces that don't need a view are fully opaque, maximising output; one side can instead run the semi-transparent variant of the same glass — without breaking the building's unique black aesthetic.
INSTALLATION
Scale is simpler to visualise. Start with something familiar: assume an SUV parked in the clearance beneath the building. Against that, the render's proportions resolve to a viewing tower standing around 17 metres tall, a building running roughly 22 metres end to end, and a footprint in the region of 165–210m². Our proposition is to develop 2 x R—101 units within an acre — closer to 0.8–1 acre in total.
Modular projects typically run 30–50% faster overall than traditional builds, because factory fabrication happens in parallel with site and plinth preparation rather than after it; one recent two-building modular class project (13,000 sq ft) went from ground to occupation in 100 days, against a year-plus conventionally*. At scale, we expect R—101 on-site assembly with the full programme — plinth, fabrication, connections — closer to 180 days.
*Reference: Modular Building Institute ( modular.org )