Architecture, Sustainability, and Transformation
Type: Residential, Competition finalist
Area: 120 m2
Year: 2015
Location: Dalsland, Sweden
As a finalist in the Dalslandsstugan 2.0 Competition, this proposal is a formal adaptation of an historical longhouse into a flexible contemporary dwelling. Longhouses appeared on each continent as some of the earliest forms of communal living. Traditionally, these buildings would house animals, multiple families, and collective living/cooking spaces. Today, while communal housing has become less of a necessity, there is still need for homes to adapt to changes in family arrangements. Growing children, divorce, shrinking families, and other alternative organizations make static home designs impractical.
Dalslands Långhus is composed of a series of prefabricated frames that establish niches that can easily shift between communal and private space. The aperture of each opening decreases as one moves towards the more secluded end of the house; a response to traditional demands for privacy, but in a fluid and open way that links each individual niche to the collective living space.