Aiming to develop a new social geography, the international collaboration Housing the Human addresses social, technological, and aesthetic questions that may shape the future of communal living. From a pool of concepts submitted by architects, designers, and artists, five approaches were chosen to be developed into concrete prototypes over the coming year. Those are presented at five different platforms across Europe in 2018 and 2019.
On the closing weekend of the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, Housing the Human will discuss the five selected concepts, each proposing a novel perspective on possible futures of designing, building, and experiencing space. The presentations will be followed by an open talk. The team of experts that will spice up the debate includes Hülya Ertaş, the editor-in-chief of XXI Architecture and Design Magazine; writer and designer Nicholas Korody; the director of research and programs at SALT, Meriç Öner, designer Daniel Perlin, and researcher Moira Valeri.
In October, the five participants kicked off the initiative at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin. Housing the Human provided a public platform to the selected concepts in their initial stages. Simone C Niquille (CH, NL) of Technoflesh presented the first results of her video investigations on human and machine cohabitation, Regarding The Pain Of Spot Mini, in which the perspective of an artificially intelligent entity is represented by 3D renderings. Artem Kitaev (RU, AUT, US) of KOSMOS Architects explained how the prototype Three Pillars of A New Home allows the creation of housing from abandoned and unused structures by using transportable elements. Using a functional division between “hardware” and “software” in architectural design, he asks us to rethink the domestic space. Lucia Tahan (ES, DE), with her project Cloud Housing, previews how using technology will change the way in which people inhabit spaces in a market-driven, consumer-oriented environment. With an augmented reality installation, she invited the audience to design furniture for an empty space from memory and to reflect on the overlap of the digital and physical worlds. Dasha Tsapenko (UA, NL) explores how future uses of living space might shapeshift through changes in our family constellations and love relationships, such as polyamorous partnerships. A performance visualizing their complexity served as a starting point for her personal fieldwork in 20 households that her project LOVARATORY will be based upon. Mae-ling Lokko (GH, PH, US) is an expert in sustainable material technology; with her project Agrocologies, she investigates methods for processing and reusing organic waste for building purposes and how it can be integrated into domestic kitchen recycling management. In her presentation, she elaborated on the potentials of mycelium technology.
The prototyping process is a core element of Housing the Human. The project is conceived as a groundbreaking research platform that intends to develop interdisciplinary methods for a practical futurology. “Prototyping means that you have to achieve something experienceable and not just words, a concept, questions, or an idea. So each concept will become tangible in some way,” explains Freo Majer, the artistic director of Forecast (Berlin) and the initiator of Housing the Human. “However, our definition of a prototype is quite wide. It can be a mock-up or 3D simulation, a video work or installation; even a performative or discursive work. A radical approach to experimentation is key to our project.”
The development of the prototypes is framed by the guidance and consultancy of an expanding international network of experts from various disciplines outside of the usual academic or institutional setting. In one-on-one sessions, panel discussions, and workshops, the five selected participants receive feedback from different perspectives. Experts involved so far include architects Giancarlo Mazzanti and Matthias Sauerbruch, filmmaker Christopher Roth, writer and curator James Taylor-Foster, curator Angela Rui, designer Daniel Perlin, museum director Tulga Beyerle, and video artist Omer Fast.
“This didactic, experimental experience is the second pillar of Housing the Human and extremely fruitful because it brings together different minds around good ideas,” says Pippo Ciorra, senior curator for architecture at MAXXI (Rome) and co-director of Demanio Marittimo. Km-278 (Ancona, Italy), who is also an artistic director of Housing the Human. “We have selected five young talents to develop a prototype, and then we invite experts to meet them and move them around the world. I have always been obsessed with this kind of nomadic teaching experience because of its productive challenges.”
Making the conceptual and development process transparent to the public is part of the overall concept. “Presenting the initial stage of research is challenging because you are still vulnerable,” says Jan Boelen, the third member of the Housing the Human curatorial team. Being the curator of the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, Boelen invited Housing the Human to Istanbul. “But it can be extremely valuable. Our participants will learn from every new context, every country, every city. It will inspire them and infuse the project with new ideas, new cultural backgrounds, and questions that we never raised before. Housing the Human is also integrated into a new educational model that we are testing in Istanbul, which is more future-oriented than the existing ones. Ours is not only about presenting work in a biennial. In fact, we produce the work; we conduct research; we bring experts together and let them have discussions. By doing that, we are not only questioning our institutions and their formats, but we are also looking into using research to inspire production, discussions, discourse, and so on.”
In 2019, the Copenhagen Architecture Festival (CAFx) will be the first to offer a stage for sharing the developed prototypes with a broader public, and for investigating them in discussions, performances, and workshops. The next edition of CAFx runs under the theme and concept of “changing ideals,” in relation to the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus and the Social Housing Association in Denmark. Josephine Michau, the fourth member of the Housing the Human curatorial team and director of CAFx, remarks: “Ideals of the good life are changing, and the built environment and design have to accommodate these different needs. In Denmark we operate with 37 different family categories and of course that also demands new methods of design. We also have to deal with the climate crises and housing shortages. In that discourse, of course, Housing the Human has tremendous relevance in discussing how we are going to cope technologically, economically, and politically with both challenges and opportunities.”
Following CAFx, Housing the Human will be hosted by Z33 – House for Contemporary Art in Hasselt, Belgium. Final project results will be shown in October 2019 as part of the Housing the Human Festival at Radialsystem in Berlin.
Housing the Human is funded by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development within the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning of Germany and held collaboration with acatech – German National Academy of Science and Engineering. The event on November 2 in Istanbul is supported by the Goethe-Institut Istanbul.
