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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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HOME House Project: The Future of Affordable Housing
Thursday 13 April @ 13:32:07 |
 by Christopher Koza
As the Earth’s natural resources continue to dwindle, and the practice of balanced efficiency between humans and nature continues to give way to greed and political nearsightedness, societies will be required to inhabit a strange and innovative hodge-podge of dwellings, according to the architects and participants of HOME House Project: The Future of Affordable Housing. In this fascinating exhibition of prefabricated houses and adventurous architecture, the Weisman Art Museum is transformed into a real estate office prognosticating the future.
But this exhibit is more than just architectural science fiction or a display of Richard Branson’s designer neighborhoods for the conscientious space-tourist; it stresses the fact that we can and must to do better with what we’ve got.
 What
is the future of affordable housing? A trailer park community of tightly arranged
manufactured homes? Random suburbia where spiraling neighborhoods of big, sterile
houses rise up amidst big-box development? A simple, peaceful cabin nestled
deep in the woods where one’s concerns are more about locating sustenance
and averting boredom?
In addition to keeping home prices down (construction costs at $85,000 to $100,000)
and minimizing resources, the Affordable Housing Initiative (AFI) lists “neighborhood
involvement” as one of its goals in a mission that seeks to “ensure
stability and improve the quality of life in low-income communities.”
In an era when low- and middle-income earners receive debatable benefits from
public policies, projects such as the AFI offer glimmers of hope in an increasingly
foggy future.
The HOME House Project: The Future of Affordable Housing exhibit is equal
parts well-meaning, half-baked innovation and entertaining, thought-provoking
visual buffet. The viewer is meant to scoff and laugh, while considering images
of sketchy model homes with skepticism and wonder. Many homes incorporate solar
cell technology, such as the “Marginal House,” which also features
a green roof—essentially, a rooftop garden designed to save money in long-term
energy costs.
The “Container Home Kit” utilizes discarded shipping containers,
such as freight cars and truck trailers, and turns them into stackable designer
living spaces. Another idea develops interchangeable “Docking Dwelling”
units and seems more like an inhabited Tetris game than cutting-edge urban planning.
Some of the projects incorporate web-based customizing of homes, emphasizing
mass-production on the scale of automobiles or toothbrushes. Imagine a homebuyer
logging onto the web and instead of searching through real estate classifieds
for that dream home, going to a one-stop-home-shop-dot-com and customizing a
nifty pre-fab unit down to the smallest detail. There is something very Ikea
about all of this, and it isn’t entirely far-fetched. At the very least,
this exhibit suggests that affordability does not have to compromise quality
or innovative design.
So while living in a “Honeycomb Home” may not be for every John
and Jane, neither is shacking up in a lakefront coal-burning mansion. See this
exhibit with a friend and have a little fun. ||
HOME House Project: The Future of Affordable Housing runs through
Apr. 30. The Weisman Art Museum is located at 333 E. River Rd., Mpls., 612-625-9494.
Gallery hours are Tue., Wed. & Fri. 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Thu. 10 a.m.–8
p.m.; Sat. & Sun. 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Closed Mondays.
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