ABSTRACT
In traditional stick-built homes, occupants are, at best, marginally aware of the complex systems that allow them to live comfortably. We perceive the single-family house as a static commodity, too big and too expensive to constantly change. Except for minor modications and the occasional full-scale renovation, the house is rarely amended. Instead, we change our environments with furniture, appliances, and paint. ese modications might be motivated by evolving technologies or maturing tastes. e stu within our homes is in play, but rarely, if ever, is the house itself conceived of as a modiable, customizable platform (Figure 18.1). Contrast this with our disposition towards computers and smart phones. With these devices we expect to continuously update both “operating systems” and hardware. e operating system evolves to accommodate increasingly sophisticated applications and programs. e hardware in turn evolves to support improving operating systems. is cycle, predicated on a uid system that does not recognize either soware or hardware
as a static condition, results in rapid change, improved performance, and greater exibility. e same logic that drives the technology forward also allows for customization. e same family of parts (hardware and soware) can provide unique functionality according to need, profession, lifestyle, technological sophistication, intensity of use, and personality. With OSWall (Open Source Wall), and its precedent research projects, Drape Wall and Cloak Wall, we endeavor to do for the single-family home what the Apple “App Store” or the Google Android “Marketplace” has done for the smart phone. OSWall is an experimental wall system that challenges conventional home construction through an open, collaborative approach to material selection, fabrication, and installation methods. It proposes an “open source” construction platform in which third-party designers, engineers, scientists, or creative “do-it-yourselfers” can design, produce, market, and sell wall “applications” that are plugged into a standardized structural armature. Our strategy for OSWall is predicated on the notion that the house is an assembly of parts that will continuously evolve. ink human skin (Figure 18.2): we continuously slough o old skin and grow new skin cells. e epidermis layer of our skin is in eect replaced every 35 days. Similarly, OSWall components are designed to be replaced, reused, and relocated. e house is as modiable as furniture arrangements, paint colors, or photos on the wall. Where skin stretches and folds to accommodate movement, the house might change according to lifestyle and program. OSWall can adapt to season or climate just as skin senses environmental uctuation and regulates body heat and moisture content. e system will continually draw on current technological innovations (Figure 18.3). is chapter will argue for a new residential construction platform in three parts. First, it will briey review the history of stick-frame construction, identifying both its current advantages and disadvantages from a practical perspective. Second, it will outline the systemic, material, and performative advancements explored through three full-scale construction prototypes by HouMinn Practice. Finally, it will critically position the work, especially OSWall, in an historical context, through a mini-manifesto called “A case for disintegration and obsolescence.”
