The design of housing – buildings that will become homes – has always presented a great challenge for architects. Designed internally to accommodate the most intimate events of our lives, externally housing makes up 80% of the built environment around us. Its design forms the spaces of our local neighbourhoods, and the character of our towns and cities as well.
This exhibition looks at – and under – the residential skin: not at internal housing layouts but the external housing shell – its face to the world. It shows how designers today are challenging traditional forms and re-interpreting the legacies of iconic schemes, using fresh ideas and new materials. In particular, it explores the importance of well-designed entrances and threshold spaces in providing that balance between security and the sense of welcome and delight that underlies our sense of 'home'.
This exhibition took palce at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Architecture Exhibition Gallery on 2 November - 27 May 2007.
Curated by Rob Wilson, Curator, Programmes, RIBA Trust, with Justine Sambrook (RIBA Trust) and Abraham Thomas (V&A).
Extracts from the exhibition
Chimney Pot Park, Langworthy, Manchester
Living Room House, Glenhausen, Germany Seifert. Stoeckmann Formalhaut Completed 1999
Majolika House, Vienna Otto Wagner, 1899 Photo: Bernard Cox, 1980 RIBA Library Photographs Collection
Donnybrook Quarter, Bow, London Peter Barber Architects Completed 2006
Mirador, Madrid, Spain MVRDV Completed 2004
Burton Place, Manchester Glenn Howells Architects Completed 2005 Copyright: Glenn Howells Architects
Housing, Aylesbury, Buckhamshire Make Architects
Ildefonsa Someillan Apartments, Havana Max Borges Recio Completed 1950