C-House
(Polycarbonate House) is the project for
a polycarbonate house to be built in may 2000 in Tokyo, during the Mukojima
Net Event.The Mukojima Net Event is an urban exhibition featuring town-planning,
architecture and art projects that will be shown on vacant lots in the
public space of Mukojima, a traditional Tokyo neighborood along the Sumida
river.
The design of the house has been done with the grant received from Canon
Foundation, with the support of the Hosei University of Tokyo. The title
of the project submitted to Canon Foundation is: "Sensorial projects for
environmental architectures". The Canon Grant is given on a yearly base
to european and asian researcher willing to cross their original culture
with the japanese environment.
Since the design part of the project has been finished, is now time to
find partner (or partners) interested to the feasibility of the project,
interested in its practical construction. For "partner" we mean every
subject interested in partecipating in the actual building, or that are
willing to share their know-how on the several topics involved in the
different building parts (polycarbonate technology, temporary building
systems…).
C-House focuses on the sensorial features of the material chose. Often, in the design fields, architects focus on the limited topic of technololy, functionality, estetics; forgetting the cultural and sensorial features that enable us to communicate our ideas in terms of the relationship between the technological support and different markets and cultures. These are fundamental aspects, often forgot. If we analyze different building materials, we can notice that the arrival of new technologies in different markets is not necessary linked only to the technological values and cost matters. Sometimes (most of the times) the real matter is the capacity of the new material of interacting and answering to different sensation and emotions that every different culture is looking for, desiring, willing to buy.
C-House is the project for a temporary housing unit, for two people, with maximum dimension of 6 x 6 x 3 mt. The prototype will be built in the month of may in Tokyo, during the above mentioned exhibition. The building will be erected using the polycarbonate techonological system.
The
project comes from a close observation of the homeless people living in Tokyo. These people live in cardboard houses, incredible folding units for one or two people. It is a very peculiar typology, linked to the local cultures and habits. The homeless live in a cardboard house that blossoms in the night, with a very high environmental capacity, without any problem related to security issues (in this extent the crimeless japanese society provides a perfect setting). C-House starts from this point. It wants to be the delopment of this original concept, a low-cost housing system, for temporary use, but with some specifici features. Our aim is infact not to forget the aestetical performances, as well as the emotional and sensorial features that marks the real difference between a real home and a packaging device. A project like this has a clear goal: to find a reasonable solution for an economic housing in emergency conditions, in difficult setting, in an environment marked by a clear sign of temporaryness, an extreme solution in terms of flexible housing in different territorial systems.
of
his house… everyone has his own idea. The house where we were born, the house were we live, the house of our girlfriend…. For this reason everyone is able to read a different culture, its features, times, ways to do, rules, emoptions, aspects of the common living. To try to enter in a far away society like the japanese one, asks us to make this necessary step of experiencing the feeling of the house. To build an house in Japan (as well as to live into it) it means to adapt to limited spaces, to use the private space in a different way, to learn new roles (never experienced in our daily western life), to move into the space following strange ways, to use the space in smart and unexpected systems. C-House wants to build a little japanese house, for two people, with specific choice in terms of environment, sensorial skills, speficic compositive attitudes. A technologica challenge in order to arrive to define a new possible way for the contemporary japanese domestic life.
temporary
is another key word. Our building will be temporary for several reason. First of all because it is linked to the Mukojima Net Event. Therefore there is this peculiar concept of the japanese architecture. In Japan the buildings are never forever. Their life is short, much shorter than the western ones. C-House can be seen as the elementar particle of the contemporary japanese architecture, a possible prototype to be shipped and experimented also in other places, maybe even in the western countries..
made
of polycarbonate
because this transparent material seems to be reacting very well to the features of the local housing system. It is a proper solution in terms of privacy, in terms of comfort, in terms of lightness of the inner spaces. Not to mention the easyness of its use, and the simple building procedutres. In a world of paper and glass, the polycarbonate seems to be the best material to reach our goals. In its opalescent and transparent versions, it provides a very subtle lighting system, with special effects in terms of texture and surfaces treatment. A new way in order to renovate a millenary japanese tradition. C-House comes from the specific performances of this material, in order to become an house, an opportunity of innovation and cultural exchange. It is a chance in order to go beyond the form, flying over the domain of emotions and sensations, features that can be explored through an innovative use of a material like this.
Pedro Arroyo, Anna Barbara, Stefano Mirti, Akihiro 'AKI' Otzuka, Luca
Poncellini:
contact us
Mukojima Net Event: http://www.mukojima.cjb.net