Case Studies for Safe House and Sharifi-Ha House

By:Patrick Szczecina

The topic chosen for this week is to build off the thesis abstract that was written before, in this case I will be writing about two case studies that fit into the main idea. The thesis that I have chosen is that of transformative architecture, which utilizes building movement (walls, rooms) to create new spaces. The two buildings chosen have to do with sliding walls and rooms that open up views and create new additional spaces.
Safe House – Warsaw Poland
The clients for this project asked for a home that would act as a safe house (security top priority), taking a cubic form with move-able exterior walls. One major area is the garden, where the Eastern and Western walls slide to the outside fence creating a courtyard. During the night the “Safe Zone” goes only to the building exterior walls, but during the day walls are adjustable to move to create outdoor spaces that are enclosed. The move-able portions of the structure are the exterior walls, large window shudders, and a draw bridge. The structure itself is made of concrete, having all the mobile pieces made of light steel trusses. Wide glazing’s behind the movable walls let the building acquire energy during the day (winter) or prevent the sun’s heat from going into the house (summer). “This routine reminds of the processes occurring in nature – the house resembles a plant in its day and night cycle.” - Robert Konieczny.
Sharifi-Ha House -Darrous,Tehran, Iran
The site location and context left this project having narrow facade width compared to its depth. Alireza stated that “The sensational, spatial qualities of the interiors, as well as the formal configuration of its exterior, directly respond to the displacement of turning boxes that lead the building’s volume to become open or closed, introverted or extroverted.“ The architect intended on having the turning boxes used seasonally and to the client’s needs, mainly open in warm seasons and closed during the colder ones or nights. The structure is seven stories high, having every other floor with the turning box which allows for a larger configuration space, along these lines the interior portions can be transformed as well due to the boxes. The main focus of the boxes is that they operate on a rotating gear system, where the boxes rotate out over the front yard. With the closed boxes the only available space is that of the box itself. When the boxes are rotated, the new space that is created is a balcony on the exterior and new additional space on the interior where the box used to sit.