Not-for-long-home

Tryouts on living in the city: Four possible homes

2017

Final Thesis Project, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design
Instructors: Prof. Zvi Efrat, Deborah Pinto Fdeda, Ifat Finkelman

Awards: Winner of Archiprix International Hunter Douglas Award, 2019
Winner of HOME Competition 2018, Adaptablity award
Finalist at the Azrieli Foundation Prize
Together with Stav Dror

Not-for-long home examines the potential of living in a collective household made of various arrangments of the ‘dwelling unit’ - a thickened wall, public on one side and private on the other, structuring all living functions on its rims. It offers varying configurations of objects, rituals and situations that maintain the tension between a lack of commitment and the possibility of leaving at any moment.

The unit explores the potential of neglecting conventional living spaces and their habitual maintenance. Storage is turned to display, with private objects placed on the private side, and shared ones on the other, creating a distinction between "what is mine" and "what I'm currently using".  Any wing of the building may be arranged according to different levels of sharing -  one may offer large common spaces while another may offer only individual households. Service areas like kitchen and balcony were placed at the edge of each wing while corridor intersections offer a large scale public space such as a library, study area or laundry room, structuring the floor plan as mutually dependednt systems. The dwelling unit amplifys the preformative aspect of living, creating a facade from the hidden and viewed, owned and shared, and explores the potetial of living not-for-long.