basselsaroufim the[super]model

final house 3 production movie!

That's it... The end. Project 3 done, Moody House for Kate Moss... enjoy the movie!

And yes... that is Rihanna's 'S&M.' Because why not, that's why.

final model photos!

Moody House is finished! Below are comparative photos of the house in its two states, hidden and revealed. This was an interesting experience in many ways, as I've never photographed and presented a model with such duality... All of my projects in my previous years have been traditional architecture, solid and completed. I'm quite intrigued by this model because it has two sides to it, and it's a transient and perplexing thing to photograph and analyse one design that is comprised of essentially two models... in the same model. Weird.

What is it that makes this design so untraditional? What stops it from being so unbuildable, so unrealisable? Technology? Imagination? Ability? This kind of thing is usually seen in sci-fi movies... Is it fear? Would the world be afraid to leap that quickly into the future, with a house that moves and disappears? With a mind of its own? A living house?

parts and progress shots...

The machined parts for house 3:

The first progress shot, with the base, acrylic water and acrylic glass enclosure modeled:

The second progress shot after the landscape was added. The house hiding places remain empty for now.

computer design work...

Here is the final design for the house in SketchUp.

Initially the site appears barren and unadorned, a simple landscape with no features.

Once all of the house pieces reveal themselves a complete building then forms, as if from nowhere. A glass enclosure even rises out of the water, to be met by a protrusion from within the main structure which supports it.

Also, a Chronolapse time-lapse video documenting the house's digital design:

invented brief and design idea...

MOODY HOUSE

It would be easy to take Kate Moss' quote below to be about her addictions, and about physically being unable to think and feel while intoxicated. But there is also a sadness to the second part, where she admits why she pursued those moments and addictions... not so the loss of feeling would be a symptom, but so it would be the main pursuit. She actively did not want to feel. This gives rise to my idea known as Moody House, a transforming and disappearing structure that rises and falls out of the landscape. When Kate Moss wants to disappear and stop interacting with the world, the house disappears. When she wants to retreat from everything and stop feeling anything, the house retreats with her.

This house was required to be on a site, so in the same way I played with the concept of the case for house 2, I wanted the concept of the site to be different here too. Instead of just throwing a building onto some hills, the site had to be the house and design itself. The individual pieces would be concealed within the landscape and contours, and would then physically rise up, swivel out and protrude from their hiding places, interlocking into each other and forming a complete structure. The house then dismantles itself again and retreats back into the landscape, to be awoken again soon.

the client...

How does Kate Moss feel about her worst moments, and having them splashed across magazine covers?

PROJECT THREE

final house 2 production movie!

Watch the production movie to see Meandering House rolling around and meandering about! Honestly, as a Masters student I was having way too much fun pushing a model around and chasing it...

And yes, that is Justin Timberlake's SexyBack.

the finished model!

Meandering House completed!

progress photos...

Every acrylic piece machined for the model. Apart from some reflective mirror panels placed under the platforms, the house is entirely transparent acrylic. Below you can see the 5 acrylic cylinder segments, professionally cut, as well as a solid acrylic rod the segments will be threaded onto as the core.

Progress photos of the cylindrical and octagonal enclosures coming together:

The finished individual segments, ready to be threaded onto the rod. If you look closely you can see some reflections in the mirrored platforms.

parts and detailed design...

All the 2D Parts laid out, ready to be laser cut:

Within the circular case there is a second layer of enclosure around the platforms, an octagonal arrangement of geometric shapes. I was inspired to use these varied shapes by the edgy fashion accessories Agyness Deyn wore in one photoshoot:

invented brief and design idea...

MEANDERING HOUSE

Unlike the first project, this house must be in a case. So rather than simply design a building and then box it into a case, never to be touched again, I wanted to try actually designing not just with the case but for the case... could the case be part of the house? The house itself?

Agyness Deyn's quote below and my idea to use a cylinder of clear acrylic married together perfectly... Meandering House will be both within the case and the case itself, a transparent cylinder that rolls forward and meanders around, without a predetermined purpose or physically fixed position just like Deyn herself.

However, it won't be simply a cylinder in one piece. The acrylic enclosure will be segmented into individual parts, meaning the house can roll together as one or an individual segment can rotate while the others stay stationary. Individual segments can rotate in opposite directions and mess with the smooth rolling of the whole, making the meandering of the house even less organised.

This obviously poses a problem for making a rolling cylinder inhabitable. But once again this itself became part of the design. To overcome that problem, I made each built space a simple platform suspended within each cylinder segment. The platforms are not fixed to the cylinder but instead rest lightly on two little tabs, and can rotate. This means that as the house rolls and the cylinder rotates, the platforms move with the rotation and constantly right themselves and remain horizontal.

The interesting architectural situation this allows for is seen below, where the figure is standing. When the cylinder segments are seen in section and are rotating at different speeds or in different directions, the platforms in one segment move past and away from each other. Only when the platforms are level can the figure step into the next segment. This means there is no fixed sequence of spaces and therefore no fixed building, since the spaces are always moving and meeting up at different times, and there is an infinite number of possibilities for moving through the house and experiencing neighboring spaces, based on rotation and time. Pretty cool for what began as a way to solve the platforms problem. Agyness Deyn's very existence in her house is based on a meandering way of moving and living.