Designed for a group of students or roommates, the "Rolling House" is an experiment in shared living. Individual capsules can be screened off from one another, but they're all connected to one giant room that serves as the heart of the home. The interesting thing about the house is the way it divides space and re-imagines rooms as multi-purpose social areas...
Even the bedrooms are envisioned as meeting spaces. A sleeping area in the center of the room doubles as a lounge during the day, where clusters of people can break away from the shared main room. Sliding screens can be pulled down to separate private areas from the rest of the house, but there's a definite sense that "what's mine is yours."
The idea is that each house connects to another, in a commune of Rolling Houses. "Sharing walls" between the houses contain things that are available to anyone: a library, sauna, stash of board games, etc.
Each capsule includes a bed that doubles as a lounge, a wardrobe for clothes, a personal sanctuary space, and a greenhouse area for plants.
The communal spaces include baths and showers, sinks, a dining table and chairs, multiple cooking stations, and random furniture dispersed throughout.
Architects built a prototype of the house at the "Construmat" architecture/construction conference in Barcelona this past April. Read more about the Rolling House right here, and watch a video documenting the concept right here.
Photos: Andrés Jaque Arquitectos
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Looks like the set of "The Real World."
view iphigenia's profile
I think it's more of a social/lifestyle experiment than it is about a new design philosophy.
And the noise from all the roll-up doors would get on my nerves. Surely there could have been another solution. Perhaps french doors opening into each space. You would still get the same full-width opening into each personal space with little impact into those areas and a lot less noise. I know the noise isn't mentioned but there is no way those doors are quiet.
view Emeryville's profile
Is that a toilet in the middle of the room? and a bathtub in mid-air? I'm sorry, some functions require walls.
view cantagallo's profile
Daycare Center.
view bepsf's profile
It seems like it could be a good idea but isn't. It looks like a chaotic hostel.
view brittanykate's profile
This country has already been there and done that, late 1960's early 70's. Drugs and Love. Come up with your own idea. It didn't work then, why should it work now? It is hard enough to live with your own family why would this be any better. We all need our privacy and to live our lives the way we want. I would not want so many people to know my business or sexual pleasures!
view obdimples's profile