ROLLING HOUSE
SAN FRANCISCO --- FALL 2019 --- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
A motorless mobile home.
Rolling House reconsiders the rigidity of domestic space by freeing certain components from otherwise fixed positions to create dynamic, highly customizable housing.
Tangled between the Southern Freeway, Balboa Park BART Station, the historic Geneva Car Barn, and a dense net of overhead trolleybus wires, Rolling House borrows qualities, both mechanical and sensational, from the many vehicles and infrastructures that surround it. Within the house, utilitarian elements such as sinks, counters, and closets are remade free-standing and mobile, allowing for continual customization within the living unit. Residents are given liberty to choose the type and number of elements for their respective units, creating a stepped and subscription based rent. This flexible living model can be used to meet occasional needs, like renting an extra oven for Thanksgiving dinner, or on more long term bases.
Throughout the building, the functions and utilities needed to orchestrate these movements become the main characteristics of its design. Stairs and sloping concrete pours articulate the exterior envelope. Wide corridors make room for ostensible front porches. Utility pipes become figural displays within light wells. The day to day use of overhead doors and rearrangement of living elements animates both the interiors and facades of the Rolling House.
