LIXIL International University Architectural Competition “Next generation sustainable house in Taiki-Cho: House for enjoying the Harsh Cold”
ORGANIZER: LIXIL JS Foundation
COOPERATOR: LIXIL Corporation Research Institute Shinkenchiku-sha
JURY: Kengo Kuma (University of Tokyo), Tomonari Yashiro (University of Tokyo), Dana Buntrocks (University of California, Berkeley)
A team of students of Politecnico di Milano, guided by Prof. Marco Imperadori, has been invited to participate to the international LIXIL competition. The project submitted to the jury is HuT home – Human and Temperatures.
Enjoying the harsh cold means to accept the laws of nature and reconnect with the rhythm of the planet.
HuT home is a meeting place suggesting silence and respect for nature; it is basically an instrument to foster harmony between nature and human beings.
“HuT home” and “at home” sound similar, suggesting a comfortable shelter but also a place for gathering. In fact, it recalls images of the primitive Ainu communities, sitting around the fireplace or under a tree. Ainu means “man”. Man is an “animal” who relates to nature, climate and wildlife, but also a “social member” who can use the hut as a place to share and to feel as a whole with nature within the Taiki-Cho community.
Memu Meadows is a nice village with plenty of space and architecture, but lacking time… and social activities.
A choir or a band, after using all other facilities, might use the hut to gather, sing and play music in the silence of winter or groups of students might use it for workshops or people for events like Matsuri, snow puppets contests for kids and others.
In HuT home the pace of activities is defined by temperature and both natural and ancestral signals like the smoke of chimneys, the lights of the fireplace and sounds in the silence. No technology – no digital connection – will be allowed there in order to connect human to nature, to himself and to the local community.
The harsh cold is enjoyed as a state of mind: silence and views will help to appreciate what the climate has to offer, and how the landscape slowly transforms day after day, whether it is white or not, drinking together, looking the reflections on the surface of snow… human enjoying emotions.
HuT Home also facilitates the feeling of harsh cold on the body itself, providing spaces with different temperatures – and relationships to the outside – in order to experience different sensations: gathering, singing, sleeping, relaxing and meditating.
The building is then a sort of “large thermometer” of human activities.
In a society deeply connected by technology, but, as a matter of fact, more and more disconnected from nature, the hut represent the “primitive” space, the emotional catalyst, the refuge of our fears and joys, in a special and metaphysical environment where fierce nature will demonstrate that only through respect we can live in equilibrium with it.
2015
ACTIVITY: Design supervision and General coordination
DESIGN TEAM:
Davide Della Croce (teamleader); Pierpaolo Avanzi; Federica Brunone; Hiroki Imano; Salvatore Nastasi; Andrea Nulli; Francesco Salvetti; Silvia Spallina
PROFESSORS:
Marco Imperadori, Gabriele Masera
CONSULTANTS:
Roberto Francieri, Graziano Salvalai, Andrea Vanossi
GREENBIZ AND TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS:
Martina Capecchi, Alessandra Crippa, Giulia Fumagalli
INVITED UNIVERSITIES:
Yale University (USA)
Politecnico of Milan (Italy)
Superior Technical School of Architecture of Madrid (Spain)
Istanbul Technical University (Turkey)
Chulalongkorn University (Thailand)
The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (Norway)
Tokyo University of Agriculture (Japan)
Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris La Villette (France)
Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan)