Italy
Altro Studio
Post By:Kitticoon Poopong
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| Photo © Courtesy of Emanuele Piccardo+Andrea Panzironi |
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.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Emanuele Piccardo+Andrea Panzironi |
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.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Emanuele Piccardo+Andrea Panzironi |
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.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Emanuele Piccardo+Andrea Panzironi |
“Eppure a me piace moltissimo un paesaggio così a distanze vaghe configurazioni equivoche forse perché assomiglia alla mia condizione. Di qualunque paesaggio non ci si stufa mai a guardarlo da dentro una scatola” (Indeed I like so much such a landascape 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
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| Photo © Courtesy of Emanuele Piccardo+Andrea Panzironi |
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.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Emanuele Piccardo+Andrea Panzironi |
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.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Emanuele Piccardo+Andrea Panzironi |
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).
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| Photo © Courtesy of Emanuele Piccardo+Andrea Panzironi |
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.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Emanuele Piccardo+Andrea Panzironi |
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.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Emanuele Piccardo+Andrea Panzironi |
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.)
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| Photo © Courtesy of Emanuele Piccardo+Andrea Panzironi |
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).
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| floor plans 1--drawing © Courtesy of Altro Studio |
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| floor plans 2--drawing © Courtesy of Altro Studio |
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.
Description from the Architects:
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| elevations--drawing © Courtesy of Altro Studio |
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| detail--drawing © Courtesy of Altro Studio |
Project Data
Project name: Absolute Box
Location: Italy
Program: Modular Structure House, Prefab House
Project Year: 2008
Exhibitions: Trevi Flash Art Museum; Triennale Milan 2008, World Architecture Festival, Barcellona 2008
The people
Architects: Altro Studio, Rome, Italy
Project Architects: Anna Rita Emili
Engineering: Barbara Pellegrino
Artist: Aldo innocenzi
Urban planner: Peter Lang- Architect
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
