Refer to Project Page for Antarctica’s project for the rehousing conference

Refer to Publications Page for a sample and overview of the rehousing publication

The relationship between housing and the individual house is not straightforward. If we accept that housing refers to a set of broad social questions whose answers have general application, then the indivdiual house might be problematic for the architect interested in housing. The provision of individual houses has split into a mass market with little customisation and almost no direct involvement of architects; and a boutique market of individual indulgences focusing on personal lifestyle and craft. Houses of the latter type do not usually aim to have general application or repeatable principles since they rely on uniqueness for their value. Such houses are an entirely private doman unconcerned with the history of the villa as a building of public scale, presence or function.

The projects included here exist in an area between the tailored individual home, and the mass project home. They are individual houses or pairs designed for a specific client. They are generally medium to low cost, and most are highly constrained – either by a set of site and planning constraints or a limited budget looking for the provision of space.

These houses aim to examine the tension between the site specific and the generic; the tailored and the prototypical. They are each designed with a specific condition in mind, but aim to set up principles which are repeatable or adaptable. In doing this, they assert the role of the one-off house in the broader questions of housing. These are houses which respond to specific requirements of a client, but also requirements of a common set of conditions. They pursue ideas which are not reliant on material, craft or the money required for these pursuits.

We aimed to use this comparative analysis of our housing projects, rather than identify a particular technique or identify a group of driving concepts, we have presented the projects as a catalogue; a range of options that could address different housing scenarios. It aims to foreground their diagrammatic qualities and allow direct comparison as models, despite their being carried out independently and with specific intentions.

The selected projects were all designed between 1992 and 2005 by Antarctica or their former practices. Plan and section of each were redrawn removing as much specific information and context beyond the site. We are intensely interested in the information which makes the projects specific, which is why it is excised from this study. The aim is to empty the projects of anything which would prevent its reworking in a different condition. It sets up no arrangements however with regard to social organisation, or compositional approaches to the plan.

They also demonstrate how the design compositions can range from simple to complex; abstract to figured. This process allows us to reflect on a series of relationships across the series but also allows rigorous generation of a further series of projects of ever-increasing diversity- each customised to a situation and tested within a comparative study. It aims to transfer the projects from the one-off to a situation of broader application.