What turns a residential space into a home? Its decoration? Its objects? The people sharing that space? All the memories stored in it? Estudio Guto Requena asks the participants to answer this question until July 17th by twitter @umacasaumlar and help them to construct their interactive wallpaper at Hyundai Mostra Black Exhibition in Sao Paulo. The interactive ambient “What turns a house into a home?” seeks to instigate the visitors to thinking about the significances and subjectivities associated with our houses.
When Estudio Guto Requena were invited to participate to Hyundai Mostra Black Exhibition, they faced the perfect scenario to ask this question, after all the house that will take them in has already hosted João, Amélia and their family and goes back to a important period of Brazilian history. The house, with its neo-classical architecture, was built in the early 1940’s and designed by the French Brazilian naturalized architect Jacques Pilon. This architect was very important for the historic Brazilian scenario, especially in Sao Paulo, between the years 1930’s and 1960’s. Right beside the architects Gregori Warchavchic and Rino Levi, Pilon contributed to Modern Brazilian architecture constitution and was responsible for relevant buildings in the city such as Pauliceia, in Paulista Avenue, and Mario de Andrade Municipal Public Library.
In Estudio Guto Requena’s first ambience, the Entrance Hall, they invite all visitors to answer the question: “What turns a house into a home?” by sending a text message or twitting. This ambience shelters a red volume, with its form generated from a traditional house extruded contour.
The volume crosses all over the entrance area and its openings bring the visitors eyes right into the interesting architecture features of the house. The structure itself frames pieces of the history of the property and the family, objects that used to be left behind are revealing memories now, tiles that were hand-painted by the house owner with the family coat of arms are examples of that. These objects were found abandoned during the works, and if they used to be forgotten pieces they are now a fundamental part of the narrative. Objects tell stories and if they are good stories, they will become good design.
Upstairs Estudio Guto Requena have a continuation of their ambiance, where the visitors visualize their answers to the question “what turns a house into a home?” on a interactive digital wallpaper that changes along the 30 days of the exhibition. The most recurrent typed words get special relevance, and in order to be noticed they grow and behave differently from the other words. Sensors spread on the ambiance floor detect the vibration of the visitors and this information is sent to the wall, stimulating new behaviors on this habitat of meanings.
This wallpaper adds a virtual instance to the ambiance, catching the visitor’s attention to the fact that our spaces are getting more and more hybrid, between analogic and digital universes, between atoms and bits.
The narrative ends up in the women’s public restroom that had its ceiling finishing removed and part of its tiling wall and floor covering removed in order to reveal its structure on an oneiric atmosphere where sanitary props talk to the visitors through the touch, revealing the thoughts of different people on the question “ What turns a house into a home?”. Actors, musicians, designers, business men, celebrities and ordinary people share their opinion. A central luminaire is composed by original lamps from other rooms of the house.
Would an interactive ambiance be a catalyzer to turn a house into a home? How can we architects when projecting a space create a space that is blank, open, adaptive, ready to be easily transformable by its owner? If time turns a house into a home, could new digital technologies contribute to shrink this time? Could they add new layers of meanings into our spaces?
Architect: Estudio Guto Requena Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil Project Team: Lucas Ciciliato, Guilherme Zoldan, Thais Fassarella, Henrique Stabile, Guto Requena, Paulo de Camargo Interaction: Radamés Ajna, Rodrigo Bellotto, Edgar Zanella, Thiago Hersan Photographs: Fran Parente
