Basic House / Martín Azúa

Martín Azúa 1999 / Photographs Daniel Riera

Barcelona designer Martín Azúa questions the idea of the private home with the Basic House – an inhabitable volume that is “foldable, inflatable and reversible”. The experimental prototype challenges the idea of homeownership, offering an alternative to the materialistic reality of today. Made from metalized polyester, the Basic House is a shelter small enough to fit in your pocket, allowing you to break away from the imprisonment of material ties.

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“Our habitat has turned into a space of consumption in which an unlimited number of products satisfy a series of needs created by complex systems and relations that are difficult to control. Cultures that maintain a more direct interaction with their environment show us that the idea of habitat can be understood in more essential and reasonable terms. Influenced by these ideas and using the most advanced technology, I [Martín Azúa] came up with an almost immaterial house that self inflates with body heat or from the heat of the sun; so simple and versatile that it protects us from the cold and from the heat when reversed; so light that it floats; and moreover, it folds up and fits into your pocket. Ideal for a life on the move without material ties. Having everything without having almost anything.”

Martín Azúa 1999 / Photographs Daniel Riera

*Description provided by Martín Azúa.

Martín Azúa 1999 / Photographs Daniel Riera

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Cite: Karissa Rosenfield. "Basic House / Martín Azúa" 27 Jan 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/203413/basic-house-martin-azua> ISSN 0719-8884

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