petebooth[iaac]

In emergency housing situations the manner in which solutions manage the cost and timing of deployment is perhaps one of its most critical factors. The Instant House, project developed for MIT’s Separtment of Architecture, by Marcel Botha and Lawrence D. Sass, tries to achieve a fast, cost effective system relying on digital technologies. This example studies the nature in which design and digital fabrication can be utilized as a relief effort for natural disaster areas, refugee camps or any other improvised emergency human habitat. It promotes the use of a system that is rapidly deployable and scalable, while fostering individuality within the larger rebuilt community.

Botha and Sass intend to create an atypical solution in large quantities for emergency, transitional and developing contexts, while giving agency to the end user, through generative computational methods and CNC fabrication techniques. The process lends itself to customization, embodying principles of lean production, flexible computer-integrated manufacturing strategies and reduced cycle times. A direct instantaneous link can be established between generative design and fabrication and evaluation system. The end user can participate in this decision process, without incurring cost beyond the initial technological infrastructure.

The Instant House ships as a flat packed structure ready for implementation. A generative system that mechanizes the interaction between user, designer and fabrication, attempts to effectively deploy customized dwellings without incurring a cost premium. It is not intended that the process proliferates cosmetic change, but more importantly structural and spatial variation.

More information can be found here and here.

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