Shinkenshiku residential design competition 2004: House of Multiple Dimensions
Einstein’s discoveries (over eighty years ago) overthrew Newtonian ideas, and yet most of us still see space and time in absolute terms, while the passage of time depends on our state of motion. In ‘The Elegant Universe,’ Brian Greene seeks to resolve the incompatibles of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics through String Theory, requiring that we drastically change our understanding of space, matter, and time....
A small house of 250m2 could act as an experimental probe into an architecture of more than four dimensions; the experiential phenomena of the house will be a crucial factor. The house should also be inhabitable. Materials, from molecular aspects to geometric properties will be important as will space and time. The house will act like a “thought experiment.”
Steven Holl
Project team: Pierre Gendron, Katherine Lapierre, Stephan Kowal (planneur)
Flathouse
The form of the Flathouse was generated from three perspectival points of view – “ideal” views where space appears to be flat.
Two outside points are located at opposite ends of the house – at these points the house appears flattened; an indoor point also flattens the perception of the space. From these points of view, the space of the house are developed in a perspectival method, in lieu of the more conventional orthographic method.
From these crucial points, the volumes – and third dimension of the house – are distributed, always respecting the privileged points of view.
By negating foreshortening in the construction of the house, the dimension of depth collapses, thus creating a tension which makes space momentarily oscillate between two and three dimensions. This tension present in the “flat” moments of the house is akin to anamorphosis, a distortion where an image appears to “lift off” the surface and float in a virtual space.
Anamorphosis allows to conceal in a single glance, one or more dimensions of spacetime reality. In this way the totality can only be misread, as one must leave a certain position to perceive what seem to be otherwise hidden or non-existent dimensions. As one advances, a threshold is crossed into a realm of dimensions going beyond the projected appearance.
In this manner, the hidden dimensions of the Flathouse can only be seized through one’s movement.
At the two outside privileged points of view, the Flathouse’s facades appears as either orthogonal vertical strips, or at the opposite end, as a “stereotypical image” of a house, both facades being in fact oblique walls and ramping walkways.
The crucial interior point of view is located at the threshold (entrance corridor), revealing a reassuring orthogonal geometry of the house. The interior space of the house is generated from this point of view. As one progresses through the house from this point, the idealized anamorphic view is distorted (the proposed perspective goes awry), as to reveal the true geometry of the house and its spaces. For example, what appears to be the wall of an enclosed space, is in fact a ramp to a mezzanine, and what seems to be a vertical window at the end of the mezzanine, is in fact a skylight.
The Flathouse proposes an open living space with dinning area and lounge, overlooked by a mezzanine, a counter surface for food preparation, a shelving/partition unit, and a sleeping quarter at a lower level.
Site plan
Axonometric drawing
Floor plan
Cross sections
Interior view
Flat ''house'' view
Flat ''square'' view
Flat interior view