free manifesto:

The free architecture series approaches the issue of the architectural object with a new eye. The object, which has manifested in concept with many contemporary architects formally is misinterpreted superficially in utopian plans, in that separation from the ground present in many object based works while visually isolating doesn’t truly remove the architecture from it’s site.  This separation from site is essential to one of the primary goals of architecture seen in even the Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans by Ledoux. Here we see a 19th century architect isolating and removing architecture from its context and time completely, visually stabilizing the work within itself. This issue continued to the modern era in terms like autonomy and heteronomy, in which architects like Eisenman continue the tradition of self-referentiality and removal from site in his numbered houses where architecture is always seen as referring to itself, to basic formal devices like grids and squares, and to the historical precedents like palladian spatial exercises.  The concept of Formalism seems to suggest that the term refers not to why architecture is made because this seems to be unanswerable, but rather a set of techniques to reach a more object based practice, one fundamentally delimited and deranged from the world, although it seems impossible to create something purely of essence without it. This struggle of how to create and how to deal with the essential contingencies of the discipline still seem central today and although we seem to be in no better or worse position than any of our historical counterparts, we have less to work with in the wake of post-modernism, with the possibility of using current references seeming less viable as time passes.  The solution, or rather un-solution my new project free architecture suggests is that rather than creating formal objects, an architectural object can exist in its ubiquity. The plurality of Ikea tables and wall outlets, eggshell plaster and wall base, and the ever present hotel art gives a new hope for the less formal object. although architecture is an essentially formal discipline, creating things intended for mass production, easy to make and assemble seems to be a better way to create architectural objects. That is why this new series of modular objects designed for easy home manufacturing will be free for anyone to make, in hope that some of the designs might become good typical solutions for existing problems rather than well engineered monotony most of us live around daily.

free architecture must :

1. be extremely budget friendly, materials must be 100$ or less

2. be easily manufacturable with basic tools such as a jigsaw and a drill.

3. be fast to put together

4. be made of cheap flat material (mostly ¾ ply or similar)

5. be customizable to the builder as a a piece might be to the musician

6. be the most simplistic form of whatever it is

7. be designed for wall floor and self mounting

8. be free

   
   

   Acad 2007 and Rhino 5 files are supplied for each project

scale figures from various airline safety booklets

CAD available here

Rhino file available here

FA_01.19

FA_02.19

This design satisfies the criteria of a free architecture piece, mountable to itself and most surfaces with 3” screws. Completely possible to build with one trip to a local hardware store, a jigsaw, a drill, some wood glue, can be a stool, table, shelf or anything else you can imagine

CAD available here

Rhino files available here

This is a smaller scale design mostly for use in joining and adapting to various other objects. It can transform into table legs as well and shelving with ease.

FA_03.17