Prismi onirici tra deserto e oceano

http://www.letteraventidue.com/architettura/053_bc.html

http://www.abitare.it/en/architecture/barclay-crousse’s-w-house/

http://evedeko.blogspot.de/2012/03/casa-esquis-in-peru.html

Grow a Global Village in One Square Meter – Hartz IV Möbel

http://cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2012/07/24/natpkg-orig-ideas-world-smallest-house.cnn

http://blog.bmwguggenheimlab.org/2012/07/grow-a-global-village-in-one-square-meter/

http://occupy-and-gentrify.eventbrite.com/

 

(CNN) — As the child of refugees growing up in Germany, architect Bo Le-Mentzal spent much of his life thinking about the meaning of the word “home.”

Now, he’s hoping to spur others to think as well with a new creation that he’s calling the world’s smallest house.

The One Square-Meter House is exactly what it sounds like — a tiny structure that provides just enough room to sit or, when tilted on its side, to lie down and sleep.

A native of Laos, Le-Mentzal is giving away the plans and says that, using common materials, the house can be built for about $300. It has a roof, a lockable door, a foldout desk and a window. And that’s about it

But, what’s the point of what’s basically a well-designed box with no bathroom, kitchen or other amenities? Making us stop and think about how we live, he says.

“It’s a good discussion, at the moment, to have,” he said. “To think about what you really need. How much space do you really need to be happy? I think one square meter is not enough for most people, but it makes you think about what you really need and what you don’t need.”

He’s planned a tour, with the support of the BMW Guggenheim Lab, to heavily populated cities such as Mumbai and New York City. He’ll be hosting workshops, instructing people on how to build their own One Square-Meter House. The only payment he asks is for people to let him know how they’re using them and why they wanted one.

“It’s very small; it’s a tiny space if you stay in that house the whole day,” said Le-Mentzal, who lives in Berlin and is founder of design firm Hartz IV Mobel. But “if you define your house as kind of a central base, and declare the park as your garden or the city as your living room, this house is possibly the biggest house you can imagine.”

NYC mayor: Diminutive dwelling design wanted

He’s not presenting his tiny houses as a way to address homelessness or modern-day refugee camps, saying he doesn’t have the expertise. But he says he’s been contacted by governments and private citizens from Uzbekistan to California about the plans.

And, in the future, he says he’d love to create a mobile app that lets people find, unlock and temporarily claim the tiny houses that would be set up in public places from city to city.

“It would be great,” he said, “if someday you’d have an app on your iPhone, or your smartphone, where can say ‘Where is the next one square meter of freedom in this place? I need to calm down or I need to concentrate. I need to pray or cry or whatever — I would just like to be by myself now for just a couple of minutes or for the whole night.'”

And, who knows? Among the places where people have reached out to him for information is Cupertino, California — the home of Apple.

Introducing … the iHouse?

If you live in 500 square feet or less, we want to hear from you. Is it possible to live large in a small space? Visit CNNiReport.com to share your photos and stories.

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On Sunday, July 8, Corinne and Le-Menztel are teaming up to bring as many One-Sqm-Houses to the streets of Berlin as possible. They’re inviting city-dwellers to take part in an all-day workshop to build their own one square meter of freedom. The house takes one day, and 250 Euros in materials, to construct.

For those who may not be able to afford the supplies, they’re offering a karma deal: you build a house, and then rent it out to the Lab for free. The Lab will then host people with low income (students, artists, travelers, those who are homeless) to stay in Berlin in your One-Sqm-House for the remainder of the Lab’s duration (until July 29), for one Euro per night. (This is the real deal. Interested renters can make their reservations via Air B+B ) After July 29, you can pick up your house and take over from there.

Corinne and Le-Menztel don’t want the One-Sqm-House intervention to stop at the borders of Berlin. “A dream would be to have a type of ‘village’ of One-Sqm-Houses spring up from the ground, but not like a normal village in one place, rather dispersed throughout the entire world,” Corinne says. It would be fascinating, she says, to use the project as an exploration of what one square meter of freedom means in different cities and different contexts.

So she and Le-Mentzel are putting out a call for partners around the world to join them in launching the One-Sqm-House movement: to build a One-Sqm-House in their own respective cities, and document the story. At the very least, Corinne says, she wants to find partners in New York and Mumbai—the two other cities that the Lab has visited and will visit in the first cycle of its six-year world tour.

Where did I put my one square meter of freedom? Naturally, I set it down in the one place in Berlin where I spend enough time that it’s practically become my home away from home: the Lab.

Sign up now for Corinne and Le-Menztel’s workshop. You can come for free to help build, and learn to construct a One-Sqm-House; or you can build your own to take away with you that night right then and there for 250 Euros; or take part in the karma deal I mentioned above. And if you or anyone you know (hint, hint: that includes your Twitter followers and Facebook friends!) wants to help make Corinne and Le-Mentzel’s dream of a global One-Sqm-House village a reality and build and document a house in your own city, contact Van Bo Le-Menztel at prime@web.de.