Luigi Colani and Hanse Hause
Rotor House 1999-2001
Germany Private Residence.
Materials: Plastic, wood
Y2K as an aesthetic is heavily informed by the growing presence of the Internet/personal computers within the home not only as a starting point of Y2K, but as an informer of new decisions made by designers and decorative artists. The Rotor House, a collaboration between German industrial designer Luigi Colani and Hanse Haus, a pre-made housing firm located in Great Britain, exemplifies the effect that internet browsing had developed in already established designers to think about experience in a new way. The Rotor House works via a six square meter cylinder that rotates between three, separate “room pods”: the blue bathroom pod, the pink bedroom pod, and the white kitchen pod. Designed with the “young professional” in mind, Colani’s goal was to make one focus on just a minimal amount of space so they can exert more towards their career. The rotor can rotate in any direction, making any room visible at the click of a remote.
When we think of switching rooms around, via a remote, it seems to act like an analog version of “clicking” between rooms on a computer screen. The idea of the full frame of vision within the interior is dominated by one “room pod” is similar to having one website or tab open on your screen. This separation of rooms into pods harkens to past retro-futuristic/speculative designers such as Joe Colombo in its design being that of a new “living system.” Interested in, and pioneering a field known as biodesign, or biomorphic design, Colani takes inspiration from natural forms to create many of his works. The interiors of the pods are cohesive units unified by material, color, and as surface space. The shelves, tub and sink of the blue bathroom pod seem to grow organically from the walls, curving and demanding attention in their ability to look as though they are just coming to life. Similarly, the white kitchen pod makes the sink, stove, and counter all one cohesive unit.
The entrance to the pod rooms suggest a biomorphic rhythm, too, not perfect capsules as would be a popular Y2K shape, but something closer to a cell, or some kind of amoeba-like form. To be in one of Colani’s pods is to forfeit ornamentation for the entirety of form. And yet, in its sci-fi fantasy, it suggests a simpler kind of living to its user.
Analysis by Cindy Hernandez!
dailybridgerton
origamiaround
titsay
ellievsbear
izzy806
turnnoffyourmind
