Absolute Box
The human body, as well as the architectural one is an hypothesis to be run, for it involves all the fields of knowledge analyzing changes, associations and alienations (whether they are architectural, social, territorial, philosophical, anthropological etc) which the individual inhabits, runs, changes, crosses, far away from home. The house, or the box (as a too generic and banal expression used to indicate the more complex living systems whether they are built in series or just one by one) conceived to satisfy and to protect our being in the world, indeed it can just isolate us taking us away from the surround. Trying to cover the distance a man gets into a cardboard box, in which he cut out a fissure, and walk around the city. "So like a nomad weaving connects his cloth and the house itself to the outer space, to the open space within the body moves". Once he has built his living cloth the man in the box leaves for an exploration travel, that will let him confront with his inner self, with the territory that he marches over, with the geography he draws, And with the complexity he passes through.
“Indeed I like so much such a landscape characterized by vague distances, equivocal configurations, maybe because it is similar to my condition. Never get enough looking at it from a box”.
K.Abe, Hako Otolo. "L’uomo in scatola" Einaudi
So the clothing home becomes a living model that allows to travel on the body house, on the body territory, looking for a synthesis which try, through the perception sensibility, to integrate the inner space and the outer space because our home is our own world.
Project
The term box, when applied to residences, expressed a living condition that recalls back substantially to traditional methods. Humans have always lived in more less articulated boxes, which have always been more or less open (or closed), and which when configured as organised living places, represent that refuge in which man gathers and expresses the memories of his private world. This condition tends to accentuate the inversely proportional relationship that exists between in and out: the more comfortable is the inner space the less disposed is to the outer one. In fact, since remote times, man has developed increasingly welcoming and comfortable domestic spaces, but which are at the same time increasingly withdrawn from the outside world and thus create an inevitable distance between the individual and the external world and the social relationships. (That however seem to be fundamental given the present living conditions, look at the Greek cities for example). That’s why we propose a housing model which is not the result of a merely aesthetic work it focuses on the recovery of individual relationships and moves towards new living requirements. We think that the box leads to consider the house exclusively as a refuge, it is an instrument that models itself on the individual, just as a skin and not longer as a domestic space, as for example with animal shells. In this sense it is a provisional shelter that is necessary but at the same time eternal for the person who inhabits the territory.
The proposal
To achieve this result it is above all necessary to emphasize the real nature of the box, for example, the most suitable material is plaster cardboard, just like the shoeboxes, matchboxes, or the boxes for packaging etc... Let’s talk about a flexible, resistant, manageable but most of all light and easy to transport material. Our box will therefore be made of plaster cardboard and must be suspended above the ground (over two steel trestles). It must arise to overcome the gravity force that sustains the growth of its roots, It should be moreover completely closed to maintain the radical distinction between inner and outer space.
The box will constitute an empty whole; in fact, it will represent a mobile, flexible and malleable empty space transforming into a body without distinguishing features, which will conform to the needs of the individual who inhabits it. (The utilities will be located in mobile containers made from plastics as well as in the transportable WC employed in the open-air shows, while light and water will be distributed through portable solar panels.)
This prototype makes extensive use of diverse possible PV systems, from standard modules to photovoltaic strips. The last ones can have the dual function of producing electric energy and of acting as solar filters, because they are placed on the south oriented glazed wall, as indicated on the project. The wheel track between the strips depends directly on the maximum height reached by the sun at the Summer Solstice, and therefore on the latitude of the location. Another possible solution is to insert the PV units between the trestles on the façade as well as on the roof, by means of a support structures that will allow different inclination of the panel according to the location and to the hour. The distance between panel and trestles can avoid undesirable shadows that can limit the efficiency of the PV system (photovoltaic system).
You can arrange more than one line of panels which can be set in such a way to avoid cones of shadows. Power-storage units(batteries) can be placed on the same structure, as well as closed solar circuit collectors (air-water) for the heating system
Realization of prototipe 2008
Anna Rita Emili- Architect
Barbara Pellegrino-Engineer
Consultants
Aldo innocenzi- Artist
Peter Lang- Architect, Urban planner
Collaborator
Jo Fonti
Emanuele Piccioni
Federica Ciapanna
Contractors
Italprogess –cardboard panels, Milan
Palladio SPA – steel shutters, Treviso
Style maison- Parquet, Rome
Roechling SPA-HDPE panels, Varese
Photos
Emanuele Piccardo
Andrea Panzironi
Exhibitions
Trevi Flash Art Museum; Triennale Milan 2008, World Architecture Festival, Barcellona 2008
