a home exploded,
volume 3
Our project, A Home Exploded, communicates that a home bears identity with what its inhabitants chose to fill it with: memories, traumas, possessions, people, etc. The same house can be virtually unrecognizable when occupied by different families, as the house merely acts as an empty vessel. A house cannot be a home without its host.
Our project challenges the traditional exploded axonometric drawing--instead of separating the layers of building materials that make up assemblies (see Morphosis 2-4-6-8 House Parts drawing), our project series explores ways in which memory, identity, and time can be dissected.
We enter the competition with 4 variations of the same concept. All of them begin with an identical house whose representations vary based on the family who resides in it.
Each family has their own unique way of portraying themselves. Some are methodical and orderly, others like to shake it up. With that, they all left memoirs to help guide you through their drawings:
"The third family to live in this home arrives shortly after entering the process to adopt a son. They get a 20-year loan and start the renovation to add a room as their family will now grow to four. The mother, Ahana, a medical educator from South Asia and Ru, a nonbinary East and South East Asian carpenter are biological parents to Mai, an eight-year girl who are all very excited to have Enzo, a thirteen and a half-year-old boy from Switzerland, and his dog Niko, join their family. Our first drawing depicts the home when the family first arrives. They celebrate Enzo’s fourteenth birthday as the first major event to take place in this home, with an ice cream cake, one that happens to be a beloved one by each member of the family, starting a tradition that will last years. Enzo feels relieved to have found a common point with the family as he was extremely nervous to not make any mistakes to jeopardize their relationship. As Enzo walks eggshells around the family, the family tries everything to make Enzo feel as comfortable and as part of the family as possible. They know how tough it has been for Enzo to be without a family for the last four years, and how difficult it is for a child to get adopted once they become teenagers. Ru and Ahana try to get the children to bond by getting them to bike together after school. With an age gap and differences in interests, they thought this would be a great way for them to connect. Enzo and Mai learn that they both love to read although different genres, that Mai wants to be a vegan because she doesn’t like the idea of killing animals or using them for food, that Enzo loves photography and playing piano, and that Mai loves to play with her stuffed teddy bear. Enzo also learns about the family’s importance on the environments and values of acceptance and adaptability. He finds various gods and idols of worship in the home altar and feels drawn to this as he knows he has nothing to fear when it comes to being a part of the family.
The next drawing in this trilogy depicts the family as they have lived here for some years now. Enzo is in his last year of high school, deciding to pursue finance and photography, and Mai is just entering high school. The two are very close now and any insecurities either had, have virtually disappeared. Mai helps out Ru over the weekends for their high-profile clients custom furnishings. Ahana’s career has also progressed with her exploration of traditional medicine. The family gets together every Friday night for some outdoor activity which has become something of a tradition and that the kids look back at years later and recall funny moments. Soon though Enzo heads off to college and Mai starts to really feel his absence. He comes by every three months to see the family, all of whom are very proud of him.
And in the last drawing, it has come time for the family to pass on the home to another. Enzo has been met with a lot of success in his career, so much so that he can afford a larger home for the family, and after everything, he really wants to do this for them, especially Ru and Ahana. Mai is also now in college and has really bloomed into her own as well.
These drawings track the journey of one of the many families who inhabit this house. To us, the house is not just about the four walls that encapsulate rooms and provide a roof over the head of a family, which of course are invaluable, but also the memories. The home comes from the experiences, the love and care, the good and the bad times, the things we learn and the things we imbibe, and the mementos to which we assign meaning and value. We chose to represent these memories through these objects as we shake them out of the home. This family like any other is not perfect but it is beautiful in its own way. In the first drawing, we can see the morning light shining through the windows as the family is finding its grounds and navigating relationships. The second drawing is in daylight as the family has found their flow. The third and last drawing is in sunset as the family is in its last years in the house that they have called home for the last twenty years. It is sad to leave this house but with them, they will take the cherished memories and the objects that have memories attached to them, that made this house a home."
