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Crane Rooms / Aristide Antonas

By Ethel Baraona Pohl — Filed under: Featured , Houses ,
 

Simple concrete foundations and elementary water pools are proposed by Aristide Antonas in collaboration with Katerina Koutsogianni, to be installed in non hospitable beaches or arid hills nearby the sea.

The room units form independent cells, they can be covered by tissues during the day; they provide a quality connection to the Internet. The private or public character of each room is regulated by the chosen high of every unit. The high control system is located inside every room. Platforms go up and down following the will of every provisional inhabitant. A bigger screen, related to the bed, serves as a home cinema structure; a small office, a wardrobe and a shower are placed in the same moving platform. A common underground kitchen serves the needs of all the complex; a reverse osmosis desalination plant provides drinkable water to the invisible kitchen and to the units (the water pipes follow the length of the crane).

An identical design for “crane rooms” can be undertaken within a system of moving vehicles in order to form a dispersed, moving “crane room hotel”. Rooms moving up and down provide summer shelters with changing views.

 

56 comments »

Daniel Con says:

1) if it inhospitable then why would you want to live there?
2) if the housing is meant to be transportable, why dig the “invisible kitchens” into the terrain

conceptual architecture is cool, but seriously, WTF is this???

 
# May 5, 2009 at 13:28
roadkill says:

funny… an ‘architect’ with a sense of humour…
if this is the best Greece has to offer, god help us – it’s a laugh a minute

 
# May 5, 2009 at 13:48
Ed says:

I am looking for innovative ways to build a hotel, and this is definitely attractive. How much would it cost?

 
# May 5, 2009 at 13:49
Aaron says:

yeah, no “real” architectural office would dare waste time dreaming of something like this…who do these guys think they are anyway. if they keep up this kind of creative design no-one will take them seriously.

really, how do they plan to get on the cover of record?!?

 
# May 5, 2009 at 13:58
Daniel Con says:

hahaha i love the fact that they thought it necessary to have that much clothing storage, but no door or partition for the toilet. I’m all for out of this world experimental architecture, as long as it is good architecture!! such a waste of imagination

 
# May 5, 2009 at 14:18
Bo Lucky says:

Don’t you see people that they elevate architecture to a brand new level :)

 
# May 5, 2009 at 15:32
ORANGEBANG says:

they don’t…these are type of commentators that didn’t read about Venturi, Rural studio, Diller + Scofido, Bolles+wilson…and I love Aaron’s sarcasm–spot on

 
# May 5, 2009 at 16:00
trent says:

dumb!

 
# May 5, 2009 at 16:13
K says:

I agree, Aaron’s sarcasm was spot on but probably went right over the heads of the contributors (I use this loosely) that could learn from it the most. I think Arch Digest may be more their speed.

 
# May 5, 2009 at 16:20
Antreas says:

i think is a very good idea that changing views theme. it would be very interesting to change your view depenting the time hour or the place you are. it would have been a great hotel.

 
# May 5, 2009 at 16:20
roadkill says:

hey Aaron… not everyone wants to be a starchitect… take your head off those clouds or from inside your a… some people prefer to good design to some bull idea! Reminds me of Borat joke about using the hotel lift as a room…. very nice…
just make sure you have lots of cherry trees around and then we’re into a winer

 
# May 5, 2009 at 16:22
K says:

hey roadkill I think you should stick to teaching grammar and mixed metaphors…

 
# May 5, 2009 at 16:27
roadkill says:

… then again, seems like it could catch on:
http://firingsynapses.com/2007/12/08/weirdest-hotels-in-the-world/
dumb…

 
# May 5, 2009 at 16:31
roadkill says:

wow k… you must be so special…. maybe even special k.
what does the k stand for? kunt or knickers?

 
# May 5, 2009 at 16:35
Daniel Con says:

I understand the sarcasm but I dont understand the value of this project. Is the project sarcasm itself?? I think a mobile hotel on the back of a telescoping truck is pretty cool, so why stick it in an inhospitable place? why put the”invisible” kitchen in a bunker in the mountain?
What makes Venturi, Diller+ Scofidio, Rural studio so cool is that they are proposing something new, radical, and SMART. They are inventors of quality ideas….. They didnt just pull something out of their a__ and say hey! look at me! I’m inventive! I challenge the status quo! If you are going to go that road, then you better have a quality idea, with a very strong thesis to back it up.

 
# May 5, 2009 at 16:44
K says:

hey roadkill, time to let your daddy have his computer back. don’t you have a little league game tonight you should rest up for?

As for the project and point of this thread. I agree with Daniel Con’s first comment that it does seem odd to choose a site by the sea that is “inhospitable.” I would prefer to bring a tent and camp out rather than being isolated in a glass cube with no more connection to the surrounding environment than you get sitting on your couch watching tv.

 
# May 5, 2009 at 16:48
roadkill says:

so k stands for kunt then…. my money was on that one!

i am tiered of projects based on novelty with nothing substantial to show for it – just look at that plan drawn on the back of a beermat. it’s the old trick of using bright colours or sparkly lights and movable bits… obviously the children’s favourite attention grabber [at least for a few seconds] this project is conceptually bankrupt and distracts from real architecture. obviously it is a good talking point for all those who think sarcasm is the highest form of wit… dumbass

 
# May 5, 2009 at 17:08
roadkill says:

hey Aristide, post your other gems like the ‘bus hotel’ and toilet funride… for the people on the move!

 
# May 5, 2009 at 17:12
Comitant says:

Maybe someday the Simpsons will rent one of these ‘avant garde’ vacations homes. Eternally wooing, Homer Simpson, as he refills Marge’s glass, knocks over a candlle lights her hair on fire. The unit starts to burn, Marge jumps running for the beach, lighting all other units along the way.

Long story short, Marge is temporarily bald, and Homer vows vengeance on Designers. He kidnaps the duo and forces them to build an to Marge’s dressing room. After 2 summers, a tattoo, and many cases of light beer, the designers have finished something looking like a terrifying chicken (K)oop humping a diamond airplane wing. This lands them in Record. They finally can start a Real Practice.

To be continued…

 
# May 5, 2009 at 17:34
Pattercb says:

If you’ve ever been to the top of a cherry picker, you can guess how much fun you’d be having in these rooms in the slightest bit of wind!

 
# May 5, 2009 at 17:59
kc says:

something about this project is REALLY wrong. that’s someplace that you would put your mother-in-law.

 
# May 5, 2009 at 18:01
jaqui says:

it is ugly!!!

 
# May 5, 2009 at 18:04
johanirae says:

LOL I do hope the architect meant to use this to give us a good laugh.

But…

1)If it is inhospitable, can you actually find a good road that reaches your beach, and when you do reach there, can you find a stable ground to park your crane house?

2) How stable is that house? (look really wobbly to me)

 
# May 5, 2009 at 20:13
luis says:

I think it is closely related to those American “houses on wheels” This projects takes a step further, it resembles many popular and childish ideas about what a house can be: like a house on a tree, it’s small, performative, also nomad and completly open to everchanging landscapes.
Also it takes an intelligent use of an industrial object to achive all those conditions.
It’s a beautiful and brilliant idea.

 
# May 5, 2009 at 20:24
farmtastic says:

Beyond the arbitrary ideas of living on uninhabitable land with an underground kitchen, the main concept isn’t entirely lame, but it still needs to actually be designed. If you are going to have a cherry picker RV (kind of a cool idea, IMO) then you need to design the whole RV, from the hydraulics, to the support and stabilization systems and how all that transforms and gets put back together in a smooth and aesthetically pleasing way. And why can’t you have a kitchen in it, those giant ugly RV’s do. Make it interesting and modern and energy efficient and cool. Staying at an wooded RV lot wouldn’t be so bad if your RV turned into a tree house. Plus you’d get the elevated view aspect at more scenic locations.

This really looks like just an idea on a napkin, not a well thought out project. It’s a start. Run with it see if you can make something smart out of it.

 
# May 5, 2009 at 21:32
damon says:

k, i love this one, (i didnt manage to read all the comments), but i love this one and i think it doesn’t mean to be implemented. Like a stage design in sci-fi movie, i love it! both the way of presentation (rendering + sketchy drawings)+ the concept. Hav t say, it is exactly paper architects. However, ‘The purpose of thinking about the future is not to predict it but to raise people’s hopes’

 
# May 5, 2009 at 21:45
gx says:

please border the imagination and the reality.

 
# May 6, 2009 at 01:06
francis says:

Credulous doofus … but Comitant, pls pls pls continue!!

 
# May 6, 2009 at 03:52
flip says:

k, road kill, get a room

 
# May 6, 2009 at 04:15
o says:

there is nothing wrong in paper architecture. And also its only problem is not its bad design (we all have drawn bad at times and doodled in our free-time). The problem -and a question that sets a wider concern about our age- is: where does their urgent need to publish it come from?

 
# May 6, 2009 at 05:38
Bo Lucky says:

I respectfully disagree with ORANGEBANG … if you didn’t get a joke, may be it’s time for you to start reading books other than about architecture :)

 
# May 6, 2009 at 08:55
abbas says:

WOW!bad.ass !!i want one crane room near the sea pls :))

 
# May 6, 2009 at 09:40
Jason says:

Its a cool id, but not worht realising i think…
And it also looks very much like something they did back in 1984, wich is quite a long time if you speak about architecture
Its a project by Jan Kaplicky and Davind Nixon called Project 124: Peanut House – Future Systems, 1984.
Sadly i cant find any pictures on the internet about it, BUT i scanned one 1 from the book i have so i can prove my point :D
pic1: http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q299/jasoooooooooon/img085.jpg
pic2: http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q299/jasoooooooooon/img086.jpg
it was back in the days fo archigram, so it much more understandble

 
# May 6, 2009 at 11:04
Formiga says:

(warning, bad english)

I must say i love this!
and it’s not the project by itself, but the lack of fear and the notion that is another “starting” point for other/bigger ideas, or ideals.
This is idealizing possible futures even when, (literally), their head is on the clouds.

 
# May 6, 2009 at 14:11
Virginia says:

Totally agree with Formiga. Sad to see such comments above. The whole point of a forum is to respectfully exchange thoughts + opinions…

 
# May 6, 2009 at 14:35
deedee says:

what is the purpose of this? i don’t get it.
concept? cool. but for what? plus, it’s not even aesthetically pleasing.

 
# May 6, 2009 at 14:37
K says:

Yes, Jason got it right. This project is a clumsy knock off of Future Systems.

 
# May 6, 2009 at 20:18
asmellyfart says:

Consider for a moment.

How might we measure pushing the envelope?

Without the idea, any idea, this or another, ‘good’ or ‘bad’ (as it may be), the world would be less rich.

The extent of the commentary and divergence of opinion, to my mind establishes that this design has moved the worlds knowledge forward a fraction.

Hat’s off to them.

:)

 
# May 7, 2009 at 01:21
francis says:

It is assumed that the reference to Archigram, Future Systems, Super Studio blah blah blah is understood when a reader wishes to engage in this discussion. The fundamental differences is that one lead the reader, well expressed, to an understanding. The other, unfortunately, has a fondness of controversy. Call it Idea vs. Dream if you like. Two decades or so on from the reference, the advancement is this? This tabloid style publication is a cul-de-sac. “Tissues” to cover the cells … D’oh! I can only appreciate the humour it generate and nothing else.

 
# May 7, 2009 at 05:12
Heather says:

seems pointless, and lonely!!

 
# May 7, 2009 at 10:28
roadkill says:

no k[unt], this is an original and refreshing project… my my, your references are quite paper thin

 
# May 7, 2009 at 15:13
Bo Lucky says:

k and roadkill – like two brothers
my my… you deserve each other

 
# May 7, 2009 at 15:21
Dustin says:

why???

 
# May 7, 2009 at 15:52
damon says:

Jason, tks for sharing the images =)
i admit, i love it bcoz the pure pictorial resemblance with Archigrams, it’s purely personal taste and i didn’t rationalize it, btw i’ll go for Peter Cook’s lecture on 12th, Singapore.
Regardless of their impossibility of implementation. i enjoy looking at those pretty pictures.

 
# May 8, 2009 at 00:19
rob says:

first arch daily pls evict those imaginationless cribbers roadkill and may be k as well……..then if we get past johaniraes comments regarding the structural stability and its resulting visual appeal…….zoom onto farmtastics approach which takes the good out of the project and seeks to develop the idea instead of getting all tangled up in maningless(at this stage)details and trash a very basic idea of creating an adjustable and private retreat or another function at ground level or as a part of an apartment at a higher level…..possibilities are endless……wake up guys!!!

 
# May 8, 2009 at 03:36
oyerinde oyesina says:

love the concept,
but it seems they are are going to b eminimalist developments!

 
# May 9, 2009 at 06:16
fernando smith says:

1)does they move?
2)what are for?

 
# May 9, 2009 at 15:40
Matt says:

It looks out very differently… bit like new etape of nature, but using of cars probably limits architect to provide comfort.. I understand, maybe minimalism was behind scene, but having to see toilet ever when working on table can be depressive :) If that was minimalism, I would put “head” of machine to ground, and engraved it in concrete, what would then provided car in air, wheels on its top, and “users” would recycled cabine (sits in air) for basic living… :)

 
# May 9, 2009 at 20:30
maximus says:

lovely

so what is the problem in playing games?

this may be a stupid plan, but may give inspiration, or direction to a good one in future!

 
# May 10, 2009 at 12:24
Scott says:

commenting on the space layout.

The toilet needs a door to keep the stink out.
The sink should be by the toilet not the shower and there is the possibility of integrating.
You should not have to stand on the bed to get to the closet. Have a drawers under the bed or the bed folds up and clothes that need to be flat are under the bed, whatever no one wants to stand on the bed naked when they are reaching for there stuff or take their shoes off to grab a tie.

Comments on commenters.

Don’t start or continue fights. what a waste of our time. we are not idiots and can make up our own minds on the value of peoples comments without your help.

 
# May 10, 2009 at 18:14
Lisandro says:

Celebrate experimentation and boldness! nothing wrong with being grown up kids. That is what makes a creative and innovative mind. Details will be dealt when it is constructed. Pointless? so what… we do pointless thing all the time. It’s not our problem if they don’t make a living out of design, but good if they shake our neurons a bit. Thing is, its not a beauty contest, its how we think outside the basin (pensar fuera del guacal… literally). I particularly dont like some details in the design, but i love that it makes me want to go up in one of those and try sleeping there for a change.
Hay que pensar fuera del guacal muchá!! Tan chilero que es… a lo mejor y le pegamos a una buena solución de vez en cuando. I think I would switch places between the toilet and the table. so you can daydream while trying or read or write, looking out the window. anyway, it looks like an interesting and full of potential idea.

 
# May 11, 2009 at 14:12
Stan says:

Like a prison cell… ;P

 
# May 13, 2009 at 23:40
delevy16 says:

Sublime…I would rather stay here than any other hotel in the world

 
# May 14, 2009 at 23:27
boian says:

this is such a weak idea. who wants to live OVER a non hospitable beach or arid hill?

 
# May 15, 2009 at 00:46
Arq. Daniell L. Reyes says:

not architecture….

 
# September 10, 2009 at 18:14

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