ballOOn as a pocket home

Concept of the project is an airbed turned into an architectural form. 

Architecturally, our home is divided into three main spatial parts:1- recreation; 2- residential modular units; 3- public recreational space with stairs. Since the area of the site is longitudenal and narrow, due to insolation, two transverse sides of the territory are used for residential blocks so that ones can receive sunlight. For this desicion, it was necessary to retreat a small place from the neighboring building, which provided the plot with courtyard. The staircase central part performs social reactionary and technical functions. The house serves as a filler that attracts the attention of both residents and tourists as an Instagram place.

Trying to achieve an unusual and functional structure, as a result, we came to a shell system covering the entire facade.

After deciding to use shells, we thought about the types of temporary structures and the methods of their construction. We settled on the portable independent blocks version, which are placed on top of each other, creating a single building system. 

The use of this design “placing to each other” led to the next stage: the facade system solution. Since housing is temporary and assume reuse, we wanted to introduce into the project some light and energy-saving material that has many positive functions. EFTE membrane became such a material. A membrane is stretched over each modular unit along the contour, due to the flow of air from the vent pipes, the ETFE membrane is stretched to form a bubble.

The project provides for reuse. The design is dismountable, each unit is an independent system. Such a system can be transported from site to site, rebuilt and used, thereby supporting the direction of “reasonable consumption”.