Offset Your View
A product of Modernism, balloon-frame timber construction, invented in 19th Century Chicago to make housing simple, fast and widely accessible has not seen much innovation although it is a highly flexible system. The architect team, Otherothers presents an alternative to suburban life and balloon framing at the Chicago Architecture Biennale, with their "Offset House".
"Vestigal space between houses is consolidated into a shared commons, providing space for gardening, recreation and play, and reorienting the block away from the road. The cyclical renewal of suburban houses promises to reinvigorate moribund outer suburbs, allowing for generational and cultural change."
-Otherothers, November 2015
As australians they have seen suburbs overtake their landscape and asked why other architects are not studying the subject as it has such a huge architectural impact particularly in Australia and the United States.
"...more recently, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt claimed that suburban houses are "not architecture." But if the language of the McMansion is merely a veneer, shouldn't Australian architects see right through it?"
-Otherothers, November 2015
The movie American Beauty uses the tag line, "look closer", to drive us to question what is really happening in suburban life, shouldn't we be asking architects to do the same?
"Vestigal space between houses is consolidated into a shared commons, providing space for gardening, recreation and play, and reorienting the block away from the road. The cyclical renewal of suburban houses promises to reinvigorate moribund outer suburbs, allowing for generational and cultural change."
-Otherothers, November 2015
As australians they have seen suburbs overtake their landscape and asked why other architects are not studying the subject as it has such a huge architectural impact particularly in Australia and the United States.
"...more recently, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt claimed that suburban houses are "not architecture." But if the language of the McMansion is merely a veneer, shouldn't Australian architects see right through it?"
-Otherothers, November 2015
The movie American Beauty uses the tag line, "look closer", to drive us to question what is really happening in suburban life, shouldn't we be asking architects to do the same?
section, Offset House
perspective, Offset House
Model, Offset House, Chicago Architecture Biennale 2015
Model, Offset House, Chicago Architecture Biennale 2015
I like the idea of altering the suburban house to make it more urban and to provide a new type of exterior/interior space. It reminds me of Walter Segal's self-built village in the UK.
ReplyDeleteI can see this working if the density of houses is above a certain threshold, but I wonder if there is any demand for such an in-between space for those dwelling in sparsely distributed suburban houses, or if having such a space would do anything to counter the supposed negatives associated with suburban living.
ReplyDeleteIs the answer to suburban redundancy just another layer of offset redundancy?