OPEN Architecture in collaboration with Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi have unveiled the minimal housing prototype MARS Case at China House Vision 2018. Located outside the Bird’s Nest National Stadium in Beijing, the design is part of an annual cross-industry innovation and research platform known as House Vision, which uses the medium of the “house” to explore and question the direction of our living habits and urban environments in the future.
With MARS Case, OPEN Architecture challenges conventions of living space and proposes new possibilities for the future. The prototype imagines that humanity is forced to settle on Mars. Without reliance on natural resources, inhabitants instead would need to reduce consumption and carry only minimal essentials. Recycling becomes a means of surviving. MARS Case envisions this ideal house, which seamlessly combines technology, product design, and architecture. Domestic appliances in Xiaomi’s current product lines can all be connected wirelessly and controlled over smart phones. MARS Case goes a step further to integrate these separate electronic appliances into one synthesized product, The Home.
MARS Case was made as a place of self-circulating energy and zero waste. In harnessing and recycling the heat, exhaust, condensation, and other byproducts generated by each electronic device within it, the house feeds energy, air, and water and air back into an integrated ecosystem, minimizing consumption of resources. A lightweight, compact 2.4 meter x 2.4 meter x 2 meter module, within which—like a suitcase—all the house’s service components and inflatable living spaces can be folded and stored for easy transportation. An industrial product suited for the living needs and environments of all users, everywhere on earth. And above all, an ideal house with which to explore the boundless possibilities of the future.
