This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights visionary homes by the ArchDaily community. From a prefabricated house to supporting Ukraine war victims, a modular multi-story house highlighted during the Dutch Design Week, and a villa "shaped" by the Dubai coastline wind flow, this round-up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects move forward from the conventional residence concept to project alternative habitational standards in responding to harsh environments, nature, and technology.
Featuring firms like architecten van Mourik, Archigardener, DKTV, Exint, Kalbod Design Studio, Lana Alk habbaz studio, Mitchell Designs Architecture, Mossawi Studios LLC, Void, and Team Group, the following list explores homes at different scales and varying stages of their development. Whether competition-winning projects or ongoing planned execution, each project develop a vision of living generated by unique site conditions and technical possibilities.
Read on to discover ten unbuilt visionary houses submitted from Australia, Colombia, Iran, South Africa, Syria, The Netherlands, and Ukraine and their project descriptions from the architects.
Blompod | The Moon
Blompod is an expandable and inflatable moon habitat that uses proven technologies such as a spacesuit dock, robotic arms, an inflatable system, and regolith structures. The structure of Blompod consists of two main elements, pod core and inflatable structure, which creates bigger spaces. Newly arrived, the unexpended pod has about 92 cubic meters, so it can easily be transported to the moon as cargo. The habitat can host up to two astronauts with comfortable living space.
Dwelling Module | Ukraine
DKTV
The project is a response to a large number of people who have been relocated to the central and western regions due to the Ukraine crisis. An essential condition for forming the community, particularly the public space, is a quality private space that fully satisfies household requirements. At the beginning of the design, we abandoned the concept of shared spaces for cooking and daily hygiene. Services such as laundry, temporary waste storage, and cleaning storage are in separate modules.
GreenHouse | Australia
This prototype for temperate life within year-round nature imagines the communal areas of a private residence as a life-in-a-glasshouse. This concept explores sustainable life with constructed nature within the context of a temperate climate. The traditional pitched roof form is extruded to form a continuous roof surface, which becomes glazed above the glasshouse living areas. The existing or extended fair-faced brick walls and a new glass roof will enclose the space. The entrance will be relocated to the side of the house, entering directly into the communal areas.
House Garden | Colombia
The House Garden project is a project of single-family semi-detached houses located in Bogotá, Ciudad Bolívar neighborhood, one of the most vulnerable in the city. The House Garden aims to solve the sector's low economic development by generating green roofs and indoor cultivation space. This allows users to plant their primary foods, such as legumes, tubers such as potatoes, peas, and plants for consumption, such as mint and coriander.
Homes of the Future
As artists, designers, and creatives, we all have dream homes and spaces that help us thrive and supercharge our creativity. In this series, Homes of the Future explores modern, minimal, and futuristic homes that could exist in different environments through the power of CGI and Architectural Visualization. CGI Artist and Concept Designer Hussain Almossawi envisions the future of working from home, sometimes through complete isolation, blurring the lines in physical space between nature and modern architecture.
House in the woods | Syria
The project's site is the most significant source of inspiration. The area surrounding a river, lake, lagoon, or sea coast acts as a transition zone between water and land. Therefore, turning the water banks into dynamic and appealing public spaces helps establish a balance between the stiffness of the built environment and the fluidity of water. Designing the house in it would be inspiring, so the proposal is a uniquely-designed transparent overlooking the picturesque lake.
House on the River | South Africa
House on the river is aimed at the humble coexistence of man and nature while maintaining functionality and comfort. To ensure climate regulation and as few moisture problems as possible, cavity walls are used with weep-holes placed at the bottom and top of walls in 1m intervals. Weep holes are commonly placed at the bottom only to allow water drainage after condensation. Still, by adding them at the top and bottom, airflow through the wall allows moisture to escape above before condensation even occurs.
Trinary Life Villa | Iran
The villa design by Kalbod Studio is a house for the sea, a building that has drawn the sea breeze into itself, and its walls have been rotated and opened not to limit the view but to frame different views of the sea. The design of Sea House is an experience similar to a constant movement between the inside and nature and the artificial environment while preserving the residents' privacy. The organic and non-Euclidean geometry of the Sea House is reminiscent of the plants that grow in the depths of the sea and move from one side to the other with water flow.
WoW-House | Dutch Design Week
Conceived as "a statement for living in the 21st century," the WoW House offers residents complete freedom regarding organization and layout. The plan can vary from a single-family home to a ground-floor apartment to a home for students or asylum seekers. Choosing a different type of staircase leads to a different typology and a different use of space. Moreover, the model is entirely prefabricated and can be transported by road.
Zico Villa | Iran
The villa recalls Iranian gardens typology. The central courtyard used in Zico Villa controls the airflow and humidity of the facility. The double skins of the external walls increase the thermal capacity of the walls as much as possible. The openings in the ceiling of the ground floor in three main points send the flow of hot air to the upper levels like traditional domes, and finally, with the exit of the airflow from the upper floors, the openings of the central courtyard direct cool and humid air inside.
HOW TO SUBMIT AN UNBUILT PROJECT
We highly appreciate the input from our readers and are always happy to see more projects designed by them. If you have an Unbuilt project to submit, click here and follow the guidelines. Our curators will review your submission and get back to you if it is selected for a feature.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on December 07, 2022.
