Basic House | Martín Azúa

A basic inhabitable volume; foldable, inflatable and reversible. (Experimental prototype made from metalized polyester). MOMA collection New York. Our habitat has turned into a space of consumption in which an unlimited number of products satisfy a series of needs created by complex systems and relations that are difficult to control. Cultures that maintain a more direct interaction with their environment show us that the idea of habitat can be understood in more essential and reasonable terms. Influenced by these ideas and using the most advanced technology, I came up with an almost immaterial house that self inflates with body heat or from the heat of the sun; so simple and versatile that it protects us from the cold and from the heat when reversed; so light that it floats; and moreover, it folds up and fits into your pocket. Ideal for a life on the move without material ties. Having everything without having alm Basic Home is not a product, rather a concept of extreme reduction. Some years ago I was impressed with an Ezio Manzini’s sentence, an Italian theoretical of sustainability, he said that “Design’s paper, in a future, will be to make attractive the poverty”. Science away the tools of change, but Art and Design are who, in somehow, propose or imagine new scenarios. Basic home try to make attractive a proposal very radical. It is evident that the saturation of products in the “develop societies” doesn’t mean already a sign of progress, rather it is becoming a threat for the planet. If a house is kept in a pocket is obvious that can contain anything and brokes with our lifestyle based on consumption of products. “Have it all (freedom) without having almost anything”.