Housing: A Modern Approach

Booster Blog

Housing: A Modern approach

World Architecture Festival 2016 is putting the spotlight on housing. With the theme of Housing for Everyone, architects from around the globe are presenting their ideas on the topic.

The topic of housing comes as a much needed response to the refugee crisis. Based in Berlin, the subject is suitably relevant. Not only this, but nothing else could be more at the heart of architecture than housing. Most architects have at least partaken in the design of their own home or that of a relative’s. Here’s a look at some interesting perspectives on housing to have come to the surface this year.

Efficient living
Ben van Berkel, founder of UNStudio, opened this year’s event with a seminar looking into his idea of Superliving. Through his work, he challenges the modern idea of the living space. To look at sustainable housing with just energy efficiency in mind would be to look with tunnel vision. It is not only the energy usage that should be efficient but also the interaction between humans and their immediate environment. In the western world humans spend approximately 80 percent of their time indoors. To overlook the importance of the human relationship with space would be detrimental. In van Berkel’s opinion, efficient living should encompass every aspect of what it is to live. The home should provide a flexible space to eat, live, sleep, and work.

The efficiency of living isn’t just about energy and space, it’s also about the quality of life. What’s the use of a huge energy efficient tower block if the people inside feel isolated. Apartment buildings from the 70’s all the way to the 00’s are known for a lack of space for social interaction.

Humans are social animals that wish to know their neighbors. Unfortunately people still find themselves feeling alone in a building full to the brim with people. Van Berkel’s vision of housing includes social interaction and integration, whether it may be a detached house, or a 7000 person apartment block.

Flat-packed housing?

Design firm Leckie Studio focus on making housing accessible. That may sound like a not so radical idea, but their flat pack cabin is accessible in every sense. Inspired by that dude with IKEA, the team wanted to make a house that a group of people could assemble by themselves. The prospect of building your own home is usually an exciting but daunting one. It costs a lot of money, you need to hire experts to work on each part of the house, and it takes time. But imagine if your house came in a package and could be assembled by you and your friends.

This is the thinking behind the recreational cabin. It comes neatly packed, and can be configured in a number of ways from the same envelope. Leckie Studio target this towards the nature-lovers that dream of living in the wilderness. It can be erected in wild areas, inaccessible by road. The prefabricated shell allows dwellers to furnish it themselves, turning them into unique, comfortable homes.

Our domestic future

Taking a look into the future of housing, the ‘House of Wonder’ is a gallery of Werner Aisslinger’s work on display at Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. His pieces will fill the two-storey paternoster hall in the museum. The hall has been transformed into a vision of the future; a model studio that holds predictions for the future of our lifestyle as well as interior design. The pieces respond directly to the constantly changing reality of human life. It offers unconventional solutions to product design and a practical approach to ecology and sustainability. This gallery is a fascinating peek into the future of domestic life. From pop-up houses, to robot gardeners, it seems to have it all. 

The exhibition will run for ten months until September 2017.