Sylvie Hagens

The New York-based OBRA Architects was invited to acknowledge and mark the first-year anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake through participation in CROSSING: Dialogues for Emergency Architecture, an exhibition on emergency housing at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.

Red+Housing is proposed with the knowledge that, when living on the edge of survival, action needs to be decisive and precise. By definition, an emergency will arise suddenly and demand fast response, but the immediate actions we take can have long-term consequences

The design has been developed as an in-progress embodiment of the following 10 Points of Architecture on the Edge of Survival.

01. Universal Application: This prototype aspires to universal applicability. Its development contemplates a series of simple modifications that would make it a useful solution anywhere in the world: add insulation and a stove for cold climates; remove doors and windows for tropical climates; replace materials according with local availabilities, etc.

02. Effective Performance: The project makes economical use of materials by enlisting the structural strength of post-tensioning. The bamboo plywood strips of the dome support the enclosure, with the same force with which a bow propels an arrow into the sky.

03. Economical: The project proposes the use of locally available low-cost materials. The materials are always replaceable and are chosen for their performance rather than appearance. When working in different locations materials which become exotic can be replaced with ones that are locally abundant

04. Transportable: All parts are collapsible to flats and can therefore be easily packed and transported.

05. Ease of Assembly: All connections are a simple friction bond of male/female parts which are then secured with a minimum of fasteners.

06. Renewable Materials: In China the project is proposed almost entirely in bamboo plywood, one of earth’s most renewable of materials. The cover fabric can also be considered as woven out of waterproof bamboo fibers.

07. Digitally Pre-fabricated: Digital pre-fabrication makes the project economical in its speed of production and also easy to assemble due to the precision of its fabrication.

08. Open Work: The cruciform house, while iconic, retains in its biaxial symmetry a certain ‘indifference’ that allows its easy recombination with other locally and diversely made structures.

09. Urban/Rural: The geometry of the crosses, when deployed together in groups, defines in-between spaces of infinite flexibility that can suggest an ‘urban’ context for a field of houses. Likewise, if a house is erected by itself, the exterior of the cross creates spaces that mediate between interior and exterior providing a context for people to spend time outside.

10. Flexibility of Use: The geometry of the cross allows the inhabitation of the house as either 1, 2, 3, or 4 different units of housing

Architects: OBRA Architects, Pablo Castro and Jennifer Lee

http://www.obraarchitects.com/work/index.html