good book on folding architecture

"Folding Architecture: Spatial, Structural And Organization Diagrams"

may spark some ideas

the fold is dead...

Thanks Archca26, i managed to get hold of the book and its really really good actually. Just laying out the building to allow me some inspiration as to where my folds and reappropriation starts.

Architphil, thanks for your comment too, im not looking to do a bullshit Gehry fold or twirl, i want to create a fold away architecture more then anything to allow a space to have more then one use during a 24 hour period.

Thanks

The more the merrier!!!!

Ozzie

hmmm....there's a house in a commune close to the Great Wall which I think is incredible.

it's called the suitcase house by EDGE. I think about it all the time. They may have it on arcspace. check it out.

I am working on something very similar for my thesis project … one book that I found to be very useful was a book called, “Flexible: Architecture that Responds to Change” by Robert Kroneburg. As the title says the whole book deals with architecture that adapts to the needs of the owner, business, client est. There are many examples of building, which have parts that move… from small screens or walls to entire sections of the building that change from day-to-day, month-to-month, season-to-season.

One example I found interesting was a house in Sweden by 24H Architecture that changes from winter to summer link

If the brief is for a hotel, is there any more appropriate fold than that of the luggage that will accompany the guests? Maybe the pointed fold on the toilet paper roll? Turn down service, another fold.....

Refer to the RV industry for all kinds of great folds and pop-ups/outs.

How about doing one better, designing a hotel where people can actually sleep well? The only times that I have slept well in hotels have been the result of beer or bourbon.

One of my fellow class mates tried that idea with a bus stop.
http://www.archinect.com/schoolblog/entry.php?id=65456_0_39_0_C

John Lautner's Carling house (LA, 1947) has a swing-out banquette, with audio cabinet and canted glass, in the living room; it is pivoted at one end and rolls on fixed casters to open the room to the deck. Let me know if you would like photos and a plan.

I second stinky+carpenter...the suitcase house is quite special. It had a certain stress to it...not bad stress, but the tension between the extremes, all folded away, or all opened...and the many, many combinations in between. Also see kurokawa's capsule hotels...while maybe not fulfilling the multiple uses (arguable), it is an interesting study in minimal space and compactness.

Also look at the amazing "oblique plane" projects from Claude Parent and Paul Virilio from the 1970's. The term "folding" came later and often seems to be some kind of misunderstanding (or very literal interpretation) of Deleuze. I think these precedents are more interesting since they deal with the movement of the body and disequilibrium, not purely folding as an aesthetic gesture.

More than the classical take on folding as it's been developped in the nineties, the topic reminds me more of the Joe Colombo used to make spaces transformable, such as the "TOTAL FURNISHING UNIT", afurniture that transforms from a locker, to a bedroom, to a bathroom and a living room. You should check his work, amazingly creative. Too bad he died so young; there is a nice catalogue that's been published last year by the Musée des Arts Decoratifs de Paris with all his work.

WOW, what can i say, thank you all so so so much for all this info especially all the precise projects and names of possible resources.

SDR - if you have plans and details of the Carling house or just the detail you have spoken about that would be such a great help, i dont want to put you out, but if you have the info then i would be more then happy to give you my email address etc.

Once again thank you everyone for your thoughts they have been most helpful.

If you have more info or just wanna discuss stuff then keep it coming. Can i post images of the project i come-up with once i have completed it this semester? Let me know if anyone would be interested.

Thanks again

Ozzie

I would certainly be interested to see what you arrive at. In the meantime, I'm at [email protected] and can send you what I've got. The images are in a book by Alan Weintraub and Alan Hess.

I see no reasson why practically any piece of furniture should not fold for moving and storage. How much easier would it be to take home a table or cabinet from the store, take it through doors and upstairs and erect it without tools. Hinges are as good a way of connecting pieces of wood and metal as any other. . .