Divercity Architects Trac

Project: House
Client: Wallpaper*
Project Status: Unbuilt

Wallpaper* Architects Directory, featured as part of the world’s leading young architecture practices and exhibited at the International Achitecture Biennale, Rotterdam 2009

A response to contemporary urban living in times
of fluctuating socioeconomics, this prototype house
consists of a number of standard pre-fabricated
components that allow for different spatial configurations.
The house embodies the benefits of mass production,
yet offers the possibility of bespoke inhabitation
in an individualised sequence of spaces.
Like an envelope- a mundane object with valuable
contents that can folded into an infinite number
of shapes- the house’s unobtrusive exterior belies
its cutting edge interior. Adapting to the continuous
flux of the modern lifestyle, floors and walls become
flexible elements that can be reconfigured to form
furniture. The kinetic technology is informed
by the automobile and aerospace industries-
a roof slides in like a car hood, transforming
an interior space into a courtyard; a wall folds like
an aeroplane wing to reveal hidden passageways.
The Envelope House attempts to address a recurring
issue: why build a structural frame that only plays
a supporting role when the components of the building
can incorporate and inform the structure?