flexible living space  : :  private / public  : :   translucent screens

While studying at the University of Stuttgart, I had the opportunity to design under Werner Sobek at the Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK).  The project was a conceptual residence of the future for 1+ inhabitants. Its footprint was to be as small as possible, requiring flex spaces with shared uses. And its materiality was to be lightweight.

In designing for the future, I chose to reference the past – the transient structures of yurts and tents – but I also took into consideration the contemporary material research around tensile fabrics. For the GitterHaus (Grid House), I started with a flat grid of structural members of varying lengths. When particular ends were anchored to the ground, the 2D grid was manipulated into a 3D shell around which a structural, insulating fabric was wrapped. Strongly rooted in the earth, the end product was a tensile dome-like structure with two glazed openings providing circulation, light, and views. With one end being taller than another, it played naturally into dividing the residence into more public versus more private spaces – the rear, tucked into the earth and shielded from the harsh sun provides the privacy for a bedroom and bath area, while the sun-soaked front invites guests and open movement around the kitchen.

As small as the residence is, dividing the space with permanent partition walls was never an option. So while the plumbing items remain fixed, lightweight translucent screens atop ball bearing tracks can swivel, pivot, and glide to open the space up for easy circulation by the 1+ inhabitant or divide the space off and keep the bathroom/sleeping quarters separate from the gathering/entry space.

location  |  Germany

type  |  Conceptual Residence

year  |  2007