A building system shaped around change.

Buildings often outlive the assumptions that shaped them. Demand changes, uses change, technology changes and rooms become outdated long before the primary structure reaches the end of its useful life.

ExoSett responds by separating the accommodation from structural, circulation and service infrastructure that can remain in use through successive changes of use.

The structural frame supports the cassettes independently. A service frame may provide access and utility routes. The cassettes provide the usable rooms and can be changed without requiring neighbouring cassettes to perform their structural role.

ExoSett is intended to reduce the need to demolish useful building infrastructure merely because the accommodation it contains no longer suits its purpose.

The system seeks to support independent cassette replacement, progressive refurbishment, changing capacity, relocation of accommodation and reuse of structural components where practical.

It also seeks to make the relationships between structure, accommodation, access, utilities and installation equipment clear, so that each can be designed and changed with a defined role.

ExoSett is under active development. The system architecture, terminology, component roles, frame geometry, cassette interfaces and installation methods are being defined and refined.

Structural feasibility is being examined with independent professional engineering input. This work includes the behaviour of the frame, its connections, the need for lateral stiffness and the practical implications of different structural assumptions.

ExoSett is not a single completed building design. Each implementation would require detailed architectural, structural, services, fire, access, manufacturing, transport, planning and regulatory work appropriate to its intended use and location.

This website records the ExoSett system as it develops.

The home page explains the principles that define ExoSett. The component pages provide terminology and describe the roles of the principal parts. The Design pages consider building-wide responsibilities, while the stories explore possible uses and operating models.

The website distinguishes between defining principles, current design work and illustrative possibilities. A story should not be read as a completed engineering proposal or a claim that every described outcome can be achieved in every implementation.

ExoSett began with a question: could a modular building be designed so that any accommodation cassette could be removed without depending on the cassettes around or beneath it?

That question led to an exoskeletal frame in which cassettes are hosted rather than stacked, and then to a wider system of service frames, installation equipment, replaceable components and adaptable building stories.

The name ExoSett reflects those two central ideas: an external structural skeleton and a place in which accommodation cassettes can be settled, removed and settled again.

Enquiries about the system, its development or possible applications are welcome.

Email: info@exosett.com