Monday, December 17, 2007

Fluid Habitation - Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard's rather nice Tattoo House extension is doing a virtual lap of honour around the interweb at the moment (I particularly like the garden-type window UV stickers - scroll down to the end of the post for a photo). But he also has some interesting thoughts about homeworking and I like the look of the shedlike Fluid Habitation pictured above."There is a contemporary shift in architecture toward the fluid, toward the impermanent, toward the adaptable," says Maynard. "These impermanent spaces are empowering by their very nature. Impermanency is proactive, subversive and empowering to the individual." He continues:
"The modern home does not reflect our modern life style in many ways. Our life consists of dynamic systems of media, information, technology and transport. These elements continually shape our epoch and define it as an era of loose foundations and shifting meaning. Our homes do not reflect this. They contain a variety of products that enhance our lifestyle through their flexibility, fluidity and malleability. Yet our direct living environment remains a static one. Fixed and rigid, it conforms us to a static ideology and does not allow us to easily adapt and evolve our behaviour, relationships, circumstances and lifestyle."
And so his suggestions is fluid habitation, which allows people to reinvent their living space and turn it into a truly bespoke home. So as well as wellknown devices such as intelligent glass, Maynard has come up with the idea of not only a mobile bedroom, but also a mobile office. Here's how he describes it:
"The mobile office is a flexible office space providing the family with a simple and adaptable environment to work and study. The mobile office is a hybrid structure, incorporating an adaptable, tectonic solution with contemporary screen technology. The office is a digitised 'jack' to the world, providing the family with a contemporary means and expression of their connection to the world and their freedom to information. One could imagine that as the make up of the family changes over time that simple, free standing elements such as the mobile office could be added to suit the shifting needs of the family."
Well worth a browse.

No comments:

Post a Comment