Theory over Practice | Architectural Theory

Architecture is typically understood in the traditional sense of architects and design staff working away to create sketches, renderings, and construction documents in order to construct a building. However there is another aspect of architecture, which is practicing through theoretical inquiries and research which provides the opportunities diagrammed below.

Source: Diagram by Sabrina Senninger

Through the architectural studio inquiry of disrupting the residential poche of traditional Chicago housing, there are two theoretical house designs that have stood out: the Slow House and the Metamorphosis House. The theoretical approach to these house designs allows for the exploration of changing the norm of housing. Each house in their own way challenges the traditional housing stereotype, the Slow House through movement and the Metamorphosis House through replacement in the form of transition.

Slow House by Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Slow House Source: https://dsrny.com/project/slow-house

The Slow House, a weekend getaway, is a house of movement and passage from a front door as a facade through the typical house programs that then opens up to the picture window and monitor. The Slow House challenges the housing norm through the design of the form, front facade, circulation, and integration of technology.

The Metamorphosis House by Micheal Young

Metamorphosis House Source: http://www.evolo.us/a-home-within-a-home-the-metamorphosis-house-michael-young/

The Metamorphosis House is one of replacement in the form of transformation or in the words of the house’s own namesake ‘metamorphosis’. A process over time to take a different stance on the typical house to address the rate of abandoned and foreclosed houses within the nations suburbs.

Each house, the Slow House and Metamorphosis House, are a theoretical architectural exploration as a method to challenge the typical house. While they are not going to be physically realized, the house designs still impact the architectural thinking of housing, in this particular case.