Blixtlås

I was thrilled today to come across an innovative building technique (Swedish, I assume, but please correct me if I’m wrong) called Blixtlås, Swedish for ‘zip’ or ‘zipper’. Instead of the labour-intensive (hence time-consuming and expensive) method of building with bricks or concrete blocks, the building is constructed out of flexible panels that are simply zipped together over a metal (or wood) frame. I haven’t seen this in practice before and was disappointed that traditional Oxford seems to have insisted on the panels looking like bricks since, as I understand, they can be all sorts of interesting colours or designs, and can also incorporate windows (early prototype here). (The brick design is particularly ironic, given that ‘blixtlås’ is a play on words: blixt lås, as two words, means ‘brickless’.)

It’s clear from this photograph that during construction the building is susceptible to damp when it rains. However, once the panels are zipped together the building will be watertight. The double-zip at the left corner is for an inner insulating layer to be zipped in later (a bit like three-in-one jackets with their outer waterproof and inner fleece layers) and you can see in this image where the roof will, in due course, be zipped on.

The Blixtlås system includes sophisticated computer-controls which constantly measure the air temperature and humidity in all parts of the building then unzip and rezip the panels in order to keep the balance right. Clever, eh?!