Architects: Marchi Architectes
Project: Portable House Renault Symbioz
Lead Architects Nicola Marchi, Adelaide Marchi
Location: Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Project Year 2017
Photographer: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Concerning a reflection about the space and function occupied by cars in urban spaces nowadays, Marchi Architects (Renault’s 2016 competition winners) designed a portable house in order to give a new meaning for cars, which became fully-integrated in a house. For that, the home and the concept-car Symbioz were conceived with similar aspects concerning function and aesthetics so as to form a single unit.
With 21 meters of long, 6 meters of large and 7 meters of high, the house has a metallic structure, wooden cladding, large glass surfaces and an open-plan layout. Traditional living spaces take room inside (living-room and kitchen in the ground-floor; bedroom and bathroom in the first floor).Concerning the connectivity matter between both devices, the concept-car gains a new meaning when turning into an extra/mobile room for the house which can integrate it in different ways such as: an extra room outside, the living-room’s expansion, a quiet room isolated from the noise or as a mobile living-room placed in the rooftop.
“Patrick and Paula are preparing dinner with some friends in the ground floor. Carol, their teenage daughter is listening to loud music with her friends in the bedroom on the 1st floor. Her little sister Carlotta went to the car on the rooftop to watch Harry Potter 5 with her friends while the snow falls down outside.”
The car integration inside the house brings different space qualities into it and consequently into spaces occupied by cars around the world, changing their current character.The possibility of the H33’s living unit vertical repetition in a denser context could make it possible for other car occupied spaces to be released. The use of cars would go from 25% (present percentage) to 100%.
