Architecture Program
Date of this Version
April 2008
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Today’s Communication Age has provided people more ability to share and process information. This has much to do with the technological advancements in the latter of the last century such as the telephone, the computer, and the internet. These technologies are a brilliant resource for discovering knowledge about anything, at anytime. Therefore, with all of this information accessible, it whets our appetite for the exploration of the unknown. We are standing at a new threshold of curiosity and movement which is poised for more than idea-sharing over vast distances; we are ready physically to actualize these explorations.
As inquisitive social beings we naturally have an urge to explore and that exploration brings about a new lifestyle; a transient lifestyle. The transient lifestyle has a value system that is not based upon trumped goods, but rather upon experiences of one’s own satisfaction while being mindful of the environment. This lifestyle has people that are driven by experiences, by discovery, by fi ghti ng boredom, by finding belief, and by freeing themselves the status quo. The transient lifestyle shifts towards something less influenced by aspiration to consume material products, and instead is more influenced by finding value and satisfaction in peace with the inner-self and the environment then obtaining this by spending more time with oneself, one’s family, or one’s new forms of spirituality.
This transient lifestyle is the dawn of Mobile Architecture, where dwelling applicati ons and uses are limitless and have no borders.
Mobile Architecture can be defined not merely as a movable structure but rather as a way to intelligently inhabit a specific environment at a specific time and place in a way that better reacts to Mobile Architecture, for the purpose of this project, is defined as a hybrid space dwelling, and is broken down into two applications: dwelling and mobile. Fusing these two different programs allows for creative possibilities of explorati on and personal freedom. A dwelling, a shelter from the natural elements as well as a community among its inhabitants, is the stati c component which allows comfort and security. Mobility, the capability of moving or being moved readily, is dynamic and responds quickly to impulses, emotions, expression, or mood. The hybridization of dwelling with mobility provides a freedom of movement and exploration.
The desire for an active, mobile, and dynamic lifestyle; has to lend itself to stronger possibilities other than the stable ground. The dynamitic water has always been a hypnotizing place to be and new more people are discovering how it also intensifies the adventure of opportunities and explorations from the static land. On water, the phenomenon of daily life becomes ceremonial. A sunrise or sunset is routinely extraordinary, amplified by the glow of sky on water. Rain, the sound of water on water, becomes mesmerizing. The vast, bright expanses of uncluttered space gives water residents a rare sort of relationship with light. A floating dwelling is the solution for a transient lifestyle that values life experience and their personal peace of mind while being conscious of the environment.
The goal is to create a sustainable self-sufficient hybrid parcel of mobile architecture on water that is off-grid and unrestrictive to the possibilities of explorations. This transient lifestyle affords serenity to oneself and family while experiencing the adventures of the unknown. We are at the time and place were architecture rolls, flows, inflates, breathes, expands, multiplies, and contracts, finally hoisting itself up, as Archigram predicted at the end of the 1960’s, to go in search of its next user.