Boxhome is a small, residential project in Oslo by Norwegian architects Rintala Eggertsson. The 19 square metre dwelling is described by the architects as being „a peaceful small home, a kind of urban cave“. It is constructed using a timber frame and is clad in aluminium. Internally, a different species of wood was chosen for each room.
In the North all residential buildings have to be constructed in an advanced way due to the ever-changing weather. Additionally, houses have to be artificially heated for more than half of the year. Therefore producing smaller homes would bring about a considerable economical and ecological benefit. Today the construction industry is responsible for more than one third of total global energy and material consumption, well exceeding that of all traffic and transport. This should be a crucial question especially in Scandinavia, where people, in accordance with their growing wealth, possess larger and larger houses. And in most cases, this is in addition to a second home called a summer house or a cottage.
Boxhome is a 19 square metre dwelling with four rooms covering the basic living functions: kitchen with dining, bathroom, living room and bedroom. Firstly, the project focuses on the quality of space, materials and natural light, and tries to reduce unnecessary floor area. The result is a dwelling which is a quarter of the price of any same size apartment in the same area. Boxhome is a prototype building, yet the same attitude could be taken further to bigger family housing and consequently to work places.
The basic need to house a family has become a great business adventure. Making a simple house, after all, is perhaps not such a difficult task. Moreover, meeting the official construction restrictions and laws usually means the use of building industry products and services, thus limiting the possibility of real change and development. Thirdly, in Western societies at the moment we are enjoying the highest standard of living ever know to human kind. At the same time we are fully informed of the results of our culture of consumerism. Therein lays the greatest paradox: We are forced to actively forget the real reality to be able to enjoy the facade of excess we have created around us. Finally, and most importantly, the goal has been to make a peaceful small home, a kind of urban cave, where a person can withdraw to, and whenever they wish, forget the intensity of the surrounding city for a while.
source:
www.dezeen.com/2009/01/11/boxhome-by-rintala-eggertsson-architects
