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THE CONFIGURABLE HOUSING SYSTEM: RETHINKING THE APPROACH TO LOW-INCOME HOUSING
The NAUTILUS HOUSE is both a design tool and a housing system. It is a plastic number.
The scope of the NAUTILUS house, beyond the creation of low cost, technologically innovative and environmentally sustainable housing, is the creation of a tool which promises variety and difference from standardization; of plastic and functional configurability from the mass produced standard.
The system is composed of two basic elements: the BATTERY and the LIVING CELLS. The BATTERY is the central element. It is the core of the house, an axis of entrance and circulation which produces and distributes energy (photovoltaic, solar conducts, water collection, waste purification). The CELLS ( Day, Master, Bed, Bath, Garden and Porch), are autonomous structures varying in both form and use, which interlock into the BATTERY; thus allowing for the possibility of a vast series of spatial and functional permutations. Nautilus offers the possibility of mass-produced low-cost housing in which each structure produced may be unique. CELLS are both 'containers and extensions of man.'
The NAUTILUS house requires the participation of the low- income family. It does not offer them a standard to which they must adapt to, but rather a unique dwelling fitted according to their functional needs and plastic desires. From standard, prefabricated elements, the family may choose the best measure.
