THE INTERACTIVE CITYHOME 2.0SEMAINE ENAC 5- 9 MAY 2008 SS08 PROFESSOR J. HUANG

At the turn of the 21st century, technologists pain-ted pictures of a disembodied future in which people would shed their skins and live online, evolving from citizens into “netizens.” According to their depiction, people would learn in web-based classrooms, visit virtual museums, shop in online stores, heal in tele-operated beds, and fall in love in chatrooms.

While the virtual world has profoundly changed the way we perform some of our most basic everyday activities - shopping, learning, working, banking, healing - it has not rendered the physical world obsolete or even less important. People enjoy and need social and sensual contact. Yet only a few elements of physical architecture will be left un-affected. As digital infrastructures increasingly become part of our built environments, physical and virtual elements will merge in many ways, lea-ding to completely new typologies in architecture. In this studio, we investigate the effects of digi-talization on architecture and the contemporary city. Which existing building typologies are be-

coming obsolete? How do architectural and urban conceptions of space and tectonics change, with the infiltration of new elements of interactivity? How do existing conventions of architecture and urban design operate in digital space? What are the new functional and aesthetic potentials that become available to us?

We explore such questions at the intersection of physical and digital architecture through (1) a tactical survey of typological changes in the con-temporary city, (2) critical diagnosis and strategic designs, and (3) site-specific architectural inter-ventions. Each year, we will investigate a different, specific typology.

THE INTERACTIVE CITY RESEARCH STUDIO

SEMAINE ENAC 05.-09.05.2008

Prof. Jeffrey HuangOffice: BC 104

TEACHERS

Jeffrey Huang, professeur, EPFLMuriel Waldvogel, architecte, externeNicole Hatz, assistante, EPFLMark Meagher, assistant, EPFL

Office: BC 117 Fon: +41 21 693-1315Email: jeffrey.huang@epfl.ch muriel. waldvogel nicole.hatz@epfl.ch mark. meagher@epfl.ch

security yet evokes an unease feeling of surveillance; the aroma tubes provides fresh odors yet confuses the artificial with the natural. To what extent can domesticity be manufactured?

In this research project on the Home of the Future, we take a critical look at the role of communication technologies in the domestic environment through recent history, with an ultimate objective to design, prototype and evaluate the next generation of the digital home, Home version 2.0. The project includes two separate yet tightly interconnected research areas.

The first one is theoretical and historical: a critical investigation of the intersection between communication technologies and domestic environments by re-examining architectural visions of the “house of the future” in the recent past. We trace the trajectory of houses of the future along five episodes: (1) starting with Athananius Kircher’s proposals for acoustical organs embedded in walls and ceilings in 1650, and revisiting Dutch visual and anamorphic apparati in the 18th century Kircher and Camera Obscura, (2) the introduction of pneumatic tubes as a communication device in Parisian homes

of the late 19th century, leading to Le Corbusier’s Machine for Living, (3) post world war visions of the dream kitchen to enhance the housewives’ lives – the Monsanto house, Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion experiments, General Electric’s prototype house, (4) the bachelor and bachelorette’s studio in Europe (as illustrated in Jacques Tati’s movies), and the Smithsons’ House of the Future exhibit in London, and (5) contemporary digital home projects at the end of the 20th century that attempt not to liberate but to replace the housewives entirely in a vision of post-human domesticity, including Panasonic’s smart home, Microsoft’s Easy Living, Intel’s digital home and Cisco’s Internet home.

The second area of research is hands-on and design-oriented: the invention, design, prototyping and evaluation (benchmarking) of new architectural and digital interfaces for Home 2.0. In particular, we are interested in the following four application areas of digital communication systems into the domestic environment: (1) green domesticity: integration of digital systems to facilitate energy harvesting (wind, solar, heat pumps) and sustainable living, (2) health care dashboard: design of non-intrusive healthcare

SEMAINE ENAC HOME 2.0

Consider the well-publicized vision behind the Monsanto House, the Disney-produced “home of the future” of 1957. The Monsanto House has garnered considerable attention for its material innovation and formal audacity (the plastic monocoque, the spectacular overhang). Less known are the invisible arteries and veins underneath the attractive plastic curved surface. Futuristic communication technologies lurk inside the domestic environment, turning the house into a sentient machine for living - an inhabitable, pulsating information organism. The kitchen is conceived as a powerful command and control post with the emancipated housewife at the center. At her fingertips, information from the various multi-sensory input and output interfaces – intercom terminals, video sensors, aroma tubes and filters, acoustic instruments: ears, mouths, noses and eyes distributed in the house – flows into and out of her kitchen. She controls the speed, direction, timing and frequency of the sensory flows. The infiltration of these information devices into the home (and the apparent empowerment of the housewife) does not go without controversies, however. For example: the intercom system provides instant communication yet intrudes privacy; the video eyes give the allure of

PROGRAMM

and social systems, such as ambient visualization of metabolism inside intimate domestic spaces (e.g. the bathroom and the bedroom), especially for the aging population and the physically challenged, (3) safety and connectivity: systems at the boundary of surveillance and privacy, in the context of dispersed households and personalized mobility; homes that connect dispersed family members, homes that have a personality and form emotional bonds with inhabitants over time, and (4) digital entertainment and home education: delivery and safe keeping of digital assets of inhabitants via digital furnaces.

The Futuro house, initially designed by Finnish ar-chitect Matti Suuronen as a mass-producible ski ca-bin, was introduced to the public in 1968. Its flying-saucer-like elliptical shape and plastic construction reflected the space-age optimism and utopian visi-on of the sixties, and attracted the world‘s attention. However, despite a global marketing campaign that included exhibitions and proposals for variants on the function of Futuro, it was destined for commer-cial failure, crippled by its quirky design coupled with the 1972 oil crisis, which tripled the price of plastic. Today, only thirty Futuros remain, primarily in Finland, Russia, Japan and the United States, used variously as gas stations, cafes, and art ex-hibits.

Futuro. Tomorrow‘s House from Yesterday. Marko Home & Mika Taanila (edit.). Desura Books, Finn-land, 2002. Including DVD mit documentary Futuro - A New Stance for Tomorrow (1998).

TOMORROWS HOME FROM YESTREDAY

The 1973 shortage triggered research and deve-lopment of renewable energy sources, improved technologies, and social experiments that were to have an enduring impact on the architectural and political fields. The global response to the crisis is presented through a juxtaposition of individualistic, counterculture North American approaches with the more structured collective responses of Euro-pean communities. A diverse range of materials, including archival newspapers and television foota-ge, architectural drawings, artefacts, and photogra-phy capture the political urgency and international scope of the energy crisis.

ARCHITECTS RESPONSE TO THE OIL CRISIS

THE STUDIO WILL BE STRUCTURED IN 5 DAYS

DAY 1: MY HOME

DAY 2:VISIT OF HOUSES OF THE FUTURE IN SWITZERLAND

DAY 3INTRODUCTION TO THE DESIGN PROBLEM: A HOME OF THE FUTURE IN LAUSANNE

DAY 4WORK ON DESIGN PROPOSALS: A HOME OF THE FUTURE IN LAUSANNE

DAY 5DISCUSSION OF THE PROPOSALS

A STRATEGIC DESIGN APPROACH: WORK PROGRESS IN FIVE DAYS

DESCRIPTIONIn this phase we will document the ways that we occupy our homes, and will try to understand how we respond to and use existing spaces. What are the activities that come to mind when you think of home? What are the spaces, devices, surfaces, and interfaces that make these activities possible? What is lacking in your home? Document your ideas with photos and sketches, including photo-graphs of the following spaces in the home:-Kitchen-Bath-Living room-Bedroom-Outdoor recreation area

We will look at the videos of the Monsanto pro-totype House which was built as a House of the Future 60 years ago, and of the Futuro Prefabri-cated home.

We will then discuss in groups the advantages and disadvantages of these living forms. We will fore-see how these living forms could be transformed in 60 years.

Monsanto House Disney Land Florida, USAMETHOD-Examination of people and their reception of space.

INPUT- Template A3 to place the pictures- Movie Monsato House Disneyland- Movie Futuro prefabricated home Finland

OUTPUTPin-Up: 05.05.08- Template A3 with My Home with pictures

DAY 1: MY HOME 05.05.08

PART I:MY HOME

COMMUNAL ROOM------

PRIVATE------

KITCHEN BATH ROOM- -----

OUTDOOR RECREATIONAL AREA------

DESCRIPTION

7.45am trainride Lausanne- Zurich arrival 9.56am10.18am trainride S12 Zurich HB to Oberwin-therthur arrival 10.44am11.00h visit of the Zero energy building on the former Sulzerareal Eulachhof by architect Dietrich Schwarz.Guided tour by Michael Konstanzer, dipl. Ing. Architekt U

13.00h Lunch in Wintherthur

14.15h trainride to Dübendorf with S12 toStettbach 14.36h S9 to Dübendorf.

14.45h Visit of the Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in DübendorfEawag is a Swiss-based and internationally linked aquatic research institute committed to an ecologi-cal, economical and socially responsible manage-ment of water – the primary source of all life. It carries out research, teaching and consulting and forms a link between science and practical appli-cation.

In 2006 they moved into the new zero energy buil-ding in Dübendorf by Zürich architects Bob Gysin and Partners.

Guided tour by Dr. Herbert Herbert Güttinger of the EAWAG

Train ride back to Lausanne

EULACHERHOF BY DIETRICH SCHWARZ ARCHITECT, OBERWINTHERTHUR

DAY 2: FIELDTRIPP 06.05.08

DESCRIPTIONWe’ll begin by discussing in groups the impact on the forms of the home of the following scenarios:

- No more oil and natural gas- The rent of a flat in Lausanne will reach Shang-hai prices- Families will become increasingly dispersed- The size of the average home will decrease considerably- Individual consumption of resources will need to be seriously reconsidered

We will meet with specialists to discuss each sce-nario, and how the Home 2_0 will be effected by these likely futures.

METHOD: sketching, discussing, brainstorming dissecting the existing living structures and rear-ranging

INPUT: plan of the Building with the strata unit to be redeveloped

OUTPUT: Models, Sketches post it plans diagrams

DAY 3 +4: SCETCH DESIGN 07.05.- 8.05.08

PLANS

DESCRIPTIONReview the proposals of Houses of the Future Home 2_0 with invited guests

Alison and Peter Smithson House of the Future 1956

Guests to be confirmed

DAY 5: PODIUMSDISCUSSION 09.05.08

Titles

Alain de Botton. 2006. The Architecture of Happi-ness. London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Eugene Halton. 1981. ‚The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self‘. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Robin Evans. 1997. Figures, Doors and Passa-ges. In ‚Translations from Drawing to Building and Other Essays‘, Cambridge: MIT Press.

Robin Evans. 1997. Rookeries and Model Dwel-lings - English Housing Reform and the Moralities of Private Space. In ‚Translations from Drawing to Building and Other Essays‘, Cambridge: MIT Press.

Siegfried Giedion. 1969. ‚Mechanization Takes Command: A Contribution to Anonymous History‘. New York: Norton.

Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake. 2003. ‚Refabricating Architecture: How Manufacturing Methodologies are Poised to Transform Building Construction‘. New York: McGraw-Hill.

William McDonough and Michael Braungart. 2003. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: North Point Press.

Roger Sherwood. 2002. ‚Modern Housing Proto-types‘. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Rachel Whitereaduntitled (Stacks), 1999

READINGS AND TALKS

THE INTERACTIVE CITY HOME 2.0EPFL Research Design Studio, Prof. Jeffrey HuangEPFL IC ISIM LDM1, BC 121, Station 14, CH-1015 Lausanne Tel: +41 (0)21 693 13 15Jeffrey Huang, professeur, EPFL, Muriel Waldvogel, architecte, externe, Nicole Hatz, assistante, EPFLMark Meagher, assistant, EPFL,