Agg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform

Agg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform - ConcreteAgg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform - Exterior PhotographyAgg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform - Interior Photography, ArchAgg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform - Interior PhotographyAgg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform - More Images+ 18

  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  400 ft²
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2020
  • Photographs
    Photographs:Neal Lucas Hitch
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Deer Busters, McNeel, Ram Board, Trimaco, Trimble
  • Design Team: Neal Lucas Hitch, Noémie Despland-Lichtert, Brendan Sullivan Shea, Martin Hitch, Kristina Fisher, Maxime Lefebvre, Julia Manaças, John Robert Craft, Charlotte Craft
  • Clients: Built for the 2020 Oakes Creek Residency
  • City: Clarendon
  • Country: United States
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Agg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform - Exterior Photography
© Neal Lucas Hitch

Text description provided by the architects. The Agg Hab, or Aggregate Habitat, is a prototypal eco-dwelling formed by casting papier-mâché strips into sculpted holes in the ground. Measuring over twenty feet long, eight feet wide, and four-and-a-half feet tall, and constructed using nearly 200 liters of glue and 270 pounds of paper, the house stands unofficially as one the world’s largest, self-supporting, papier-mâché structures. The process of construction started with the digging of two mirrored, convexo-concave holes, each four-and-a-half feet deep. These holes were then cast with multiple layers of an organic, papier-mâché mixture consisting of various recycled papers and non-toxic glues.

Agg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform - Exterior Photography
© Neal Lucas Hitch
Agg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform - Image 15 of 23
Site plan
Agg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform - Exterior Photography
© Neal Lucas Hitch

Next, the casts were removed from their respective holes and flipped over to form duplicate, bulbous, paper shells, measuring four millimeters thick and spanning over twenty feet. Finally, the shells were each moved on top of the adjacent formwork, letting the inverted form of one hole become a paraboloid cap to the other that encloses the structure. Thus, a four-and-a-half-foot hole becomes a nine-foot interior space. Together, the holes, matched with their respective shells, create a semi-subterranean house in which the negative and positive expressions of a series of excavated forms take on a reciprocal relationship to create multiple habitable spaces. The result of this process is a formal and phenomenal experience derived from the earth itself.

Agg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform - Interior Photography, Arch
© Neal Lucas Hitch
Agg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform - Image 19 of 23
Axo
Agg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform - Interior Photography
© Neal Lucas Hitch

There are no perfect lines, or manufactured shapes, or colors in the design. Instead, the formal language of the habitat follows cues from those found in nature: the contours of the domes perfectly matching those of the excavated dirt; the surface of the paper stained with a plethora of natural, earthen tones. Furthermore, the curvilinear apertures dotting the structures allow light to trickle into the depths of the caverns, giving life to the interior experience of the installation. As light filters in through the openings, it reflects off the glossy paper, producing an almost ecclesiastical, yet somehow sublunary, environment. As people move into the spaces, they become enveloped in a primordial experience—as if gestating in the womb of mother earth or stowing away in the belly of a whale just below the surface of the ocean.

Agg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform - Concrete
© Neal Lucas Hitch

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Project location

Address:Clarendon, Texas 79226, United States

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Agg Hab Prototypal Eco-Dwelling / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform" 24 Jun 2020. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/942237/agg-hab-prototypal-eco-dwelling-i-thee-plus-roundhouse-platform> ISSN 0719-8884

© Neal Lucas Hitch

Agg Hab生态洞穴,再生纸与胶水粘制而成 / i/thee + Roundhouse Platform

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