Modular architecture doesn’t have to be cookie-cutter. In fact, breaking buildings down to components that are easy to transport and assemble makes it possible to infuse architecture with a lot more creativity than standard stick-built construction. It’s also adaptable, so if your needs change, you can simply change the structure to keep up. With CeCuCo, the Centre for Culture and Community, architecture firm noa* envisions a flexible system that can be customized to any context, sized up or down as you like, and arranged into interesting shapes that work for the building site.

The basis of CeCuCo is an open triangular module with a wood frame measuring three meters on each side, which can be combined into all kinds of geometric shapes. This module can be filled in with glass, clay bricks, wood, or whatever other materials are available locally and best suited to the project, climate, and architectural surroundings. That means the doors and windows will generally be triangular in shape, also, opening in different directions or pushed out like a brise-soleil to allow cross-ventilation and natural cooling, which lowers energy consumption.
The cultural center is an example of what can be done with this modular system. The architecture firm wanted to demonstrate how individual rooms can be designed for multiple open-ended functions to make the overall complex as inclusive as possible. “How do you design a space that works in the same way for children who mee...