Acacia Resilient Home Prototype

Architecture Firm: Marvel
Design Team: Jonathan Marvel, Hector Ralat, José Juan Terrasa-Soler, Enrique Ramon,
Karen Cuadro
Project Type: Residential, Sustainable, Resilient, Residential Affordable
Consultants: Joaquin De Mari (Structural Engineer), Jorge Torres (Plumbing) Requena y
Asociados (Electrical Engineer)
Photographs presented below: Paola Quevedo
Project Location: Caguas, Puerto Rico

When Marvel approached us about a project that would provide a sustainable and long-term solution to the affordable housing market and offer residents the opportunity to be off-grid, we knew that we needed to collaborate. The New York and Puerto Rico-based Architecture and Urban Design firm Marvel then approached us to work with a model home for their Acacia Resilient Home project developed and funded by the Acacia Network non-profit, with EcoBuilders as contractors, and Enlace Técnico Engineering Consultants, PSC as Project Manager and Permitting Manager.

The single-family home offers a long-term housing solution for its residents by providing access to key sustainable elements like passive design with natural cross ventilation, water reserves, flood mitigation, and backup batteries to provide off-grid support during a natural or weather-related disaster. It also served as an ideal opportunity for dense urban areas, offering an adaptable and modular design that can be modified to the available square footage.

This design integrated our Structural Panels GCT System, thermo-insulated concrete panels and additional building components which protect homes against hurricanes, high-winds and seismic activity from earthquakes, and offers fire resistance. It also integrated a number of Carmelo products which helped reinforce the structure’s durability and resistance.

Here is a brief summary of the Carmelo products that Marvel incorporated into the home’s construction:

• Structural Panels GCT System: innovative Structural Concrete Insulated Panels (SCIPs) system with high R-value and lightweight construction. The system offers a solid, energy efficient and durable construction. The structural panels in this project provided PSM80, PSM100 and PSM160 thermal insulation. The panel’s thermal insulation properties help regulate both hot and cold temperatures, to create a more energy efficient home and reduce insurance and other costs. They shortened construction time compared to those carried out with the traditional systems, optimizing the construction process, increasing productivity, and reducing labor cost. Our system also allowed Marvel the architectural freedom necessary to create the most optimized structure, offering a full range of building panel components and products including: load bearing walls, partition walls, roof slabs, wire mesh, and mortars.
• Carmelo Structural Mortar Mix: This structural mortar mix has a high compression strength of 4000 psi following ASTM C-387. It was used as a base coat after the initial structure was created, and can be used with mortar application machines over our Panels or any concrete substrate.
• Type N Mortar: This mortar mix is designed for installation and plastering blocks or concrete walls with a ready- to-use formula that only needs the addition of water in the project site. The product was then mixed manually or mixed and projected with an application machine on site.

Notably, this project earned Marvel the Award of Excellence / Sustainability from the 2021 AIA Florida/Caribbean Region Design Awards. Congratulations to everyone on the Marvel team for this award!

Thank you again to the Marvel team for offering us the opportunity to bring this project to life alongside your team. We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to collaborate on this project as suppliers for a core component of the structure. We look forward to more sustainable collaborations with the Marvel team in the future and working together to support our Island’s residents and communities.