Domestic shell. Bouroullec / Vitra

The house as a plastic igloo? The need for privacy is always growing and while we sleep and work we don’t want to be seen by others. It is increasingly difficult to isolate oneself, even when alone. This scaly wall looks like a shell from the Sea of Switzerland. Edited by Francesca Picchi Photography by Ramak Fazel, Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec.

The Bouroullec brothers’ “Rocks” illustrate an architecture on demand where the construction of space tries to keep up with the increasingly rapid transformations of the living and working environment. The design acts like a piece of software. Ideally, anyone can infinitely elaborate the system to their own taste and built personalised micro-architectures that seem to regenerate themselves as a kind of contemporary geology (rocks, caves, dens, etc.). The software allows controlling the formative processes of these “marker” elements of space, and in the colours and forms there is an allusion to rock formation processes, to the movements and ripples of the earth’s surface. The use of numeric control techniques means the machines can be used as three-dimensional printers to build forms whose presence is virtually defined in space. “I wouldn’t know how to describe them exactly. For me it’s about numerically controlled architecture... Generally, in architecture and design there is always a step between us and the machine... here the idea was to make that disappear... In the beginning the choice of material was really open to any kind of sheet that could be easily cut with a numerically controlled machine. Similar to the Algae, each piece is part of a solid overall structure. Compared to traditional techniques, building this kind of architecture doesn’t require armatures or extra structures. The system is self-supporting. You just have to conceive the shape and relate it its internal stability. It is an architecture that does not require technical know-how, just a bare minimum. It’s incredibly simple to use the software to create different ‘rocks’; you can make them bigger, longer, thinner... The computerised programme makes it all so simple. The same file that contains all the data can be sent to the numerically controlled cutter that makes the single modules of the system...” F.P.