Human Shelter: Air, Water, & Earth
July 19, 2007 by Jennifer Chait
Filed under Home & Living
Today we’re going to continue with more of Michael Jantzen’s work. As noted yesterday, it’s hard to pick favorites, but when I first saw Jantzen’s designs, his Wind Shaped Pavilion was the one of the designs that first drew me in. So, I’m sharing that one today. The other design I picked to share was inspired by a readers comment — but more on that later.
The Wind Shaped Pavilion:
What I like about this design is that it’s not static. Literally. From Jantzen’s site:
“The Wind Shaped Pavilion is a design proposal for a large fabric structure that can be used as a public or private pavilion. As a lightweight fabric structure, the wind slowly and randomly rotates each of the six segments around a central open support frame. This continually alters the shape of the pavilion, while at the same time generating electrical power for its nighttime illumination.”
But here’s the really interesting part…
“The shape of the structure starts out as a relatively symmetrical form. Then the wind begins to alter that shape randomly, with only a slim chance of ever returning to its original symmetry”
I think it would be so neat to live by a structure that’s in constant change. I can’t imagine how much fun that would be to see in action. Think about the possibilities; I’m leaning towards it making a great child center. Kids would brag to their friends, “I go to the moving building.”
Next up: Liberty mentioned water in her comment and I started thinking that we don’t have enough water fun here. Sure we had the underwater resort, but most of us were pretty firm in our desire to stay dry, above land. Hence, the second design I’m sharing.
This is the Malibu Video Beach House. Maybe some of you have seen it. It’s been featured in many places. No idea why I’ve missed it. Too much coke Slurpee brain freeze?
The home was designed to sit between homes on the Pacific coast highway. To alleviate a typical coast home issue, ocean view blockage, the front of the home is designed with television screens that display real time or pre-recorded views and sounds of the ocean. This structure is less my style, but I thought some of you might really enjoy it.
My style or not, it’s intriguing, I love the idea of bringing the view back. As I mention (often) I loved my years in Humboldt. There, homes blocking ocean views on the coast really was an issue.
This is a view from the back.
Interior: (see the birds?)
And a tiny interior view of the atrium (see a larger one here).
Interesting concept, don’t you think.
Something that’s important to recognize about Jantzen’s work is that his designs are heavily rooted in human friendly sustainability. Jantzen is Executive director of The Human Shelter Innovation Institute (HSII). According to his site:
“HSII is a think tank dedicated to creating alternative solutions to the growing global problem of inadequate human shelter… The primary mission of HSII is to explore designs that make use of alternative materials, technologies, and manufacturing techniques… HSII has been developed in part to research new approaches to low-cost, energy efficient, eco-friendly shelters. These can be as simple as temporary housing for poverty-stricken communities or emergency relief programs; or as complex as large-scale housing projects for universities and urban communities.“
Well, and I thought I was doing pretty well building my one passive solar home. Makes you re-think things.
The trend towards sustainable building practices is becoming more evident. On Offbeat alone, we’ve had many recent guests with varying visions of sustainability; the Woodland home, Bart Prince, and many more.
Hopefully the strong human element that’s prominent in HSII will become more mainstream as well. HSII is a non-profit that does rely on outside support so if you’d like to learn more visit Human Shelter.
So, this conclude our visit with Michael Jantzen; although, it’s been very cool so I do believe we may have to have him back at some point. Let’s see… I think that this weekend, we’re going to visit a reader’s home (exciting) and maybe even see some more nifty weekend surprises.
[All photos courtesy of Michael Jantzen (A double hearty thank you!)]
OK, Jennifer. Now the “M” house is lovely, and I’d serve you tea there for sure. But the Malibu beach house??? Holy smokes! That is the most amazing structure. I felt instantly calm the moment I saw it (I’m a Cancer; we’re “water” signs). I’d have you over for fruity cocktails there–and I wouldn’t even make you watch Days!
You coming???
I knew you’d die… I knew it. With your blond kind of good looks you’d fit right in too. I on the other hand would look like a couch surfer there — not to say I wouldn’t visit. Cause I would. Now, how to talk your hubby into getting you this as a belated birthday gift…
Malibu Video House: this is an issue for us living in Michigan as well. Structures that line the waterfront prevent us from seeing it yet, if you reverse it (put the road along the waterfront) it feels as if you have violated the experience. Perhaps we could learn something from a exercise that would as the question: “what if we could start over”?
I wonder how cost prohibitive some of the more creative architectural designs are?
It seems like the creators absolutely want to be “in sync” (minus Justin Timberlake and the gang) with nature, but are the shelters economically feasible on a grand scale?
On another note, I’m still mulling over someday living in an “elfin glen” shelter you highlighted a week or so again. I wonder if it comes with a year’s supply of Keebler cookies?
As usual, your posts are awesome and thought-provoking and just dang fun!
Angelique
Jon, I agree but it would be hard to start over now. It’s a great question. Maybe another good one would be how can we stop doing what we’re now doing and turn it around; while still creating structures for people. I vote for less MacMansions personally. Two people do not, I REPEAT, do not need eighteen or even ten rooms.
Angelique, I can’t believe you said, “Timberlake” here — are you looking to get banned
Well as far as cost — the woodland home cost almost nothing. I hand built a passive solar home and the costs were less (we used many recycled materials and did the labor ourselves) but of course that’s not so elaborate. The Bart Prince homes I’d wager are spendy but take less away from the natural environment as do these; so there’s this whole is it worth the $ cost to save the earth argument going on too.
If we built smarter from the get go and people settled instead of moving upwards constantly and trying to beat the neighbors cost would go down. I think there’s just this whole entire background that’s rooted in how we think about living vs. how we live that drives costs all over the place. On high tech structures I don’t know if the costs make them feasible or not. I’ll try to find out though because it’s an excellent question.
Jennifer, I love that wind house. I love that the view from any window is everchanging. Of course, you’d need to be sure that you have a great 360 degree view!