This has been a very Thayaht week, so let’s close it today with an architectural project by the Italian painter, sculptor, illustrator and fashion designer in collaboration with his brother RAM.
In the early '30s Ernesto Michahelles (1893-1959) and Roger Alfred Michahelles (1898-1976) worked together on a modern architectural project for a basic, functional yet striking house. The "Brevetto per Casolaria (Casa Razionale Estensibile)" [Patent for Casolaria (Rational Extensible House)] was presented to the Italian patent office on 15th December 1931.
The patent referred to a very basic and simple house that respected the minimalist and pure lines of rationalism, but was also characterised by spaces such as the balconies and flat roofs on which the household residents could relax and sunbathe (the name Casolaria is a sort of futurist pun, playing with the words "casa", "house", and "sole"/"solarium", "sun"/"solarium").
The basic structure of the house could be extended in accordance with the needs of the residents, so from its basic model it could become medium-sized when an extra floor was added or even larger. All the main features like the energy and heating systems would remain the same, but the spaces would change adding volumes on a programmed base. There was one element that proved the Michahelles brothers were projected into the future - the garage. When they designed the house there were fewer than 15,000 registered cars in Italy, yet they decided to include in the project a garage, predicting there would have been more vehicles on the roads in future.
The Casolaria was never built, but modern projects somehow explored this concept and took it further: Alejandro Aravena's practice Elemental created different projects (that you can download here for free) that take into consideration the possibility of expanding and are based on the principle of incremental construction, such as low-income housing that are only half completed, while the other half can be developed by the residents when they need and can afford to do so.
The incremental principle could be reproduced also in fashion with a basic garment (or accessory) that could be gradually changed or modified by adding elements via zips, buttons and fastenings. While this is not a new concept, if you're a fashion designer you can try and take it further, making the expandable/incremental principle the starting point of your weekend project.
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