'infinite living' pavilion by crossboundaries can be reconfigured on demand

founded and curated by kenya hara, ‘house vision’ is a multidisciplinary innovation platform in which architects and companies work together to use the ‘house’ as a medium for reflecting on the future direction of our lifestyles and living environments. this year’s ‘house vision’, the exhibition’s third iteration and first in china, features contributions from a range of chinese architecture firms, including beijing-based studio crossboundaries.

all images by mini liu

in response to the brief, crossboundaries designed a responsive and changeable home that taps into future technologies to allow the residents to infinitely shape their space. titled ‘infinite living’, the full-scale housing prototype was developed in collaboration with electronics company TCL and uses the television as a window to ‘explore new interactions in virtuality’.

‘as a visual portal, television can transcend the monitor, create infinitely many spaces within and beyond itself, respond to everyday needs, and break through the increasingly blurred line between the virtual and the actual,’ says the design team. ‘like a kaleidoscope, the pavilion envisions the television not as a singular gathering point, but as something that can put the human at the center of the home. each television can become an interface, expanding all the functions of the modern mobile device and integrating them with the spatial dimension of everyday life.’

the dwelling’s flexible architecture has been designed to contrast the rigid configurations of many contemporary homes. instead seven zones accommodate the property’s key activities: recharge, refill, refresh, update, standby, energize, and entertain. ‘interior partitions slide to modulate the house’s volume and merge its activities with infinitely many combinations,’ the architects continue. ‘the pavilion extrapolates the planar nature of the televisions and imagines a future in which every surface of the house, horizontal and vertical, can be customized — both digitally along its surface and spatially within the house’s volume.’

the activity zones are able to expand and contract as desired, with spaces even able to disappear entirely. ‘a system of smart floor, ceiling, and wall elements can create a diverse range of activity scenarios and combinations of various atmospheres and privacy levels,’ explains crossboundaries. ‘activated, actuated panels could slide, rotate, and retract to create pockets of space or open up the entire volume. telescopic or hydraulic in nature — they could be embedded and installed into an existing apartment that has been cleared of all non-loadbearing walls, and allow one to adjust the space in harmony with needs throughout a day, a month, or a lifetime.’

axonometric diagram

concept diagram

project info:

curator and sponsor: kenya hara / house vision
organizer and sponsor: GWC china
sponsor and brand partner: TCL china
exhibition duration: september 21 to november 6, 2018
location: beijing, china
pavilion size: 100 sqm
design period: march 2018 – september 2018
partners in charge: binke lenhardt, dong hao
design team: sidonie kade, david eng, gan li, hao hong-yi
contractor: beijing yi hao design & engineering co., ltd.
photography: mini liu