Living Box - Lorenz Renee [47738]

[3CPO]

Living Box - Lorenz Renee [47738]

LIVING BOX. Presentation of Designer / Group of designers
Architekturbüro [lu: p]

TEAM

The office was founded in 2001 and has grown in size since then. Today we are a team of six young architects, engineers and interior designers, several of whom have enjoyed a widespread education. We emphasize working on projects of varying scales since we feel this is vital for increasing our knowledge in terms of conceptualisation, the implementation of materials, and construction. Our portfolio includes planning, urban development, expert’s reports and studies, structural engineering, and execution in all types of building construction. Our projects are characterized by their innovative, individual, and often alternative nature. In addition to developing / implementing projects, participating in competitions that have specific requirements such as the “LIVING BOX” design competition forms an important part of our team’s activities. These competitions provide the opportunity to explore various ideas and to implement concepts, and their complexity is a welcome challenge that enables our office to evolve further.


INNOVATION

Having already designed a number of projects in the areas of residential, commercial, and retail spaces, we are familiar with dealing with and controlling a project of the size required for this competition. We are used to incorporating budget constraints into the planning process. It is our practice to sit down with the project partners from other disciplines during conceptualisation in order to come up with propositions that are financially feasible. Involving the other disciplines at this early stage makes it possible for us to meet the technical, budgetary and aesthetic demands of the projects we work on. We consider it our responsibility to accurately grasp complex geometries during the planning phase in order to understand them during the latter phases of the project. Our work in the area of residential and public projects has given us the opportunity to research various materials. As a result we have been able to incorporate technologically advanced and newly developed materials into several of our designs. We often find that using appropriate materials that are also innovative and understanding their inherent constructive logic will transform our plans into a palpable project. We see the LIVING BOX competition as a great opportunity to intensify the design specifics of a flexible living unit, as a chance to experiment with exemplary materials and surfaces, and as a goal to put these ideas into practice.

As our office is also involved in reactivating urban spaces, we are experienced in providing specific functions with a corresponding shape/form. We like to think of an architectural wrapping to be like a piece of clothing, which we see as a type of communication between the inside and the outside. The architectural body provides the individual space with surface and substance, thus visualising the conceptual quality of the space. We deliberately endeavour to resolve the spatial quality that lies between the building and the surrounding area in a complex fashion, as we believe that only an ambivalent relationship between the object and its environment is flexible and therefore able to give meaning to the architecture in question. To us, the sense of designing is to be found in the act of focused experimentation.

The LIVING BOX project is a perfect fit for our team as it is a small-scaled but highly exciting task. What makes the design of our proposal so invigorating is the challenge of providing an architectural shape that will relate to the occupant’s unique individual experience.

LIVING BOX.CONCEPT – descriptive relation
Architekturbüro [lu: p]

BACKGROUND

Many spaces lack of appropriate areas for communication, dialogue and living. However, even if the appropriate space, they often function inefficiently due to the fact that they do not react to an ever-changing environment. For this reason these spaces are not flexible. Most notably the city, as a highly complex social structure, asks for new kinds of concepts for living.

Our aim is to design a living space which is able to react to changes and which then adapts to certain living circumstances and to all imaginable living realities. This kind of space should function as an attraction for a wide range of people and it should offer them many different areas in which to interact. One important requirement is the most flexibility feasible in utilisation and programming as well as in transportation and assembly.

By reducing the living box down to single modules, the user has the chance to generate a building based on their individual demands as well as their imagination. Within the framework of modules, size, form and consequently the composition of space inside as well as outside the living box can be generated independently by the user.

Life has become faster and many people are here today, up and off to somewhere else tomorrow. Mobile dwellings such as the living box, represent the equivalent of a first home and a personal space. This space satisfies a need for privacy and yet a contrasting desire to socialize and meet people. There is always a threshold between the exterior and the interior, the living box and its place it sits in – a city, nature or wherever the user wants it to be. Our design for the living box can be compared to a space station: a mobile dwelling with all the facilities and life support systems that its crew needs to survive in the severe conditions of space. It is easy to appreciate a space station as a mobile home: it is a container with solid exterior walls and an interior divided into zones designed for specific tasks. Architectural groups such as Archigram or the Metabolists envisioned the city of the future as a dynamic entity in constant change. Mobile dwelling units, inspired by the space age were central to these visions. Flexible structures are better able to cope with the demands of a society in flux. Mobile dwellings can be either an intimate space that offers protection or a shelter which plunges its occupant into new and unexpected situations. The living box offers a fascinating insight into an alternative way of living and defining what we call home.



IDEA

The skin of the living box possesses the ability to adapt to different realities. Physiognomic forms are not copied, but processes and structures of the occupants are transferred into design methodology. Form as such is subject to evolution the same as all creatures. There is no ending point to the progression or evolution of form. The result is a HYBRID which is a freeze image of one moment in time within a certain development.

The LIVING BOX is comparable to the physiognomy of an earthworm. It has a basic outline towards outer space, but the rings and strips vary and create an enormous contingency of assimilation especially towards the inside. Depending on program the inner form is able to adapt depending on program and creates a variety of spatial realities. Our aim is to transfer such a design principle into human scale, in order to generate space which is able to adjust to different programs and circumstances in order to accommodate new functions. Everything can be arranged everywhere at anytime, nothing is fixed or permanent.

Our design of the living unit is an assemblage of light prefabricated elements. These can be set up on site according to the need for special dimensions of living units. The elements themselves can be transported by common vehicles.


GEOMETRY

The strips are generated by a folding principle. Different functions emerge, for example, an element appears from a fold which articulates itself as a table within the inner space. It is information, is expansion, deformation, individuation. Within human body the wrinkle is a deformed plane, which has evolved from physical and psychic information. The fold as such is defined by three dimensions x, y, z and the fourth dimension. Within time fold evolves, deepens and possibly disappears in the end. Folding does not need a grid and can just be perceived within three dimensional space. Developed space is not longer the extruded plan since the two dimensional area differs distinctively from four dimensional and time based reality. Folding creates blurring.



SINGLE MODULES_ description

SIT-DOWN_MODULE: forms a mould at one side, which can be used as furniture for sitting. The vertical parts of the strip can be used as projection wall.

SIT-DOWN-AND-TALK-MODULE: this module is deformed on two sides. These formations can be used as furniture for sitting and communicating. Since the outside of the strip differs from the original form, the program is not just present in the inside, but becomes visible as well on the outer skin.

COME-IN-MODULE: this module performs the function of an entrance. Sliding elements, mounted on top side of groins, open up and close the module.

EAT´N DRINK -MODULE: forms three curvatures in space. it invites the occupants to come together in order to eat, drink and communicate. Stringed together, this module becomes a long table, where guests will sit together.

DO-WHAT-EVER-YOU-WANT-MODULE: is the basic form of all modules. It embodies on the one hand a neutral unifying element between the other modules, on the other hand it can become a module for space closure through the use of a glass element. Additionally there is a curving module which enables different orientation of the entire volume.

EXPRESS-YOURSELF-MODULE: this module encourages the inhabitants to present themselves and their skills. One side folds itself towards the inside of space, the back side becomes a plane for projection and presentation. This is also visible on the outside of skin.

STORE-YOUR-STUFF-MODULE: forms a volume inside the strip that is more strongly defined than the other modules. The attached groins close the sides of the volume but open it up towards sky.

COOK`N MIX-MODULE: cooking becomes the main activity within that module. Kitchen elements appear on the one side, including kitchen appliances as well as shelves and recesses for storage and kitchen equipment. Furthermore the strip folds itself partly towards the inner space, which changes the room´s height in this area.

SLEEP-IN-MODULE: this module forms a bed by folding out towards the inside. Stringed together a wide space for relaxing or meditating evolves when they are strung together.

SPLASH-AND-FLUSH-MODULE: the bathroom encloses a volume by folding the strip towards the inside. Both groins are open at the top and are closed at the sides. A transition from inside to outside emerges.


MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION


The groins are moulded in form by the use of composite material. The strip is made out of polyethylene and its form is generated by the use of the technique of thermoforming. Inside the strip polyethurethane foam guarantees its pressure-resistance. Single modules are connected by using rods, which clamp the single elements together.

[3CPO]

Este foi um dos projectos vencedores do Living Box competition... Dos projectos que vi, achei que era um dos mais interessantes... Algum comentário, alguma opinião? Abraços

[Dreamer]

O conceito não é de todo inovador. É interessante, mas com a mesma solução já vi trabalhos bem mais interessantes... Lembra-me uma peça que durante a exposição "Living in motion" em Serralves, estava colocada no átrio, mas da qual me esqueci do autor... Os material deve ser o mesmo, o aspecto é bastante semelhante, mas esta era um cilindro que "rodava" consuante a área que se queria utilizar... o mesmo conceito, uma outra solução...