Tatami

2018

News

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Since Le Corbusier's Domino system born, for over last 100 years, people never stopped pursuing the modular housing. As one of the most important features of modernity, modularity represents the symbiosis and universality of human beings. Historically, architects have explored valuable precedents of modularity in architectural history. Such as Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion house, Moshe Safdie's Habitat 67, and Nagakin Capsule Tower, by Kisha Kurokawa. These projects never lead to an architectural revolution in the history due to many reasons.


Nowadays, the attention to the modular housing is back again. However, the existing modular houses on the market are lack of modularity and customization. Most of products are just replicas of architecture designs with prefabrication manufacture, so that the size and form have no continuity and design genes. The customization is limited with only exchangeability of finishes. There is no "architectural" customization at all.

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Tatami is the first modular housing products in the history which has substantial architectural customization. Previously, the smallest modular is a whole room, which brings about a considerable constraints of architectural performance. It either becomes an aggregate of boxes or a fixed unique building. However, different from that, Tatami is the first modular housing product which breaks the basic unit down to building members. Any of Tatami products are consist of two main parts: Structure Frame and Prosthetics. Structure Frame is fixed yet its design provide a lot of flexibility for stacking and rotation, which will ensure the diversity of massing configurations. Prosthetics is exchangeable pieces which attach on the structure frame. Once customers define the massing configuration, they can choose different prosthetics to create their own architectural functions and forms.

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Pool Party is an economic diagram. It is a proposal that deploys a "catch-and-release" material strategy. Instead of exhausting more energy on the construction of cartoonish bubbles, we selected from a catalog of existing industry-standard pools with qualities of curves we would have wanted to produce anyway. By preparing for a transport cycle, we would reuse undervalued pools and hoist them above the PS1 courtyard in an epic rescue mission for a collection of misfit heroes. The pools will then be either returned to the pool companies, or slungshot towards their next destination for someone else's use.

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Design + Visual Team: Jimenez Lai, Joanna Grant, Sohun Kang, Pearl Ho, Eric Lawler, Mark Kamish

Model Team: Kevin Pazik, Jacob Comerci, Emily Mohr, Tyler Kvochick, Michaela Friedberg, Kate Bilyk

Video Consultant: Nic Maier

Structural Engineer: NOUS Engineering

Environmental Consultant: Forrest Meggers, Dorit Aviv

Renderings: Luxigon

Graphic Design: Pentagram

Special Thanks: Trudy Watt, Laurel Christensen, Injee Unshin, San Juan Pools

Most importantly, Pool Party is a love-letter to the culture of life in and around pools. The blue-glowing pool is more than just athletic equipment - it is a romantic space where people fall in love, get in trouble, and come of age. It is a place where we remember to forget, and at least for one or two weekends there should not be a worry in the world.

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