as a jury, awarded the project; without a doubt, flexibility, prefabricated elements and materiality were the some of the main factors that made the project successful. After the WWII, Jean Prouve began to design temporary houses which was an economic and adaptable solution that was made from wood, aluminium and prefabricated steel for homeless people in Lorraine and easy to transport, assemble and dismantle. Rogers was asked to adapt
Image 9: Rogers House [3]
Jean Prouve’s design for use as a holiday home with modern additions for Design Miami/Basel in 2005. The new design is based on Prouve’s original plans but has cylindirical ‘pods’ containing a modern kitchen, bathroom, a hot water system also solar panels to provide its own electiricity (img. 11). Rogers wanted to keep the single living space as original, however he aimed to improve it by adding new service modules in various arrangements. Rogers explained: “He and I share the same strong feelings about architectural language. By language I mean the manufactured compenents, which behave like a words. We both like to call that project process, or even the building process. We don’t believe in ‘fake’ architecture, in some readymade image that springs to mind while you’re taking a bath. Architecture’s much more complex than that. Jean Prouve has a masterly grasp of technological processes. We use technology to give shape to our ideas, the way words do in poetry.”[4] his ideas which
Image 10: Centre Pompidou Photo: Conservapedia [12]
was very close to Jean Prouve’s. After years Rogers still continued to work on self-sufficient, affordable, energy efficient and economic housing projects with the initial principle and responsibility to find an answer to housing shortages. In London, Rogers have developed an economic and innovative solution which the name was “Y:Cube” for young people who couldn’t pay the high costs of private rent. The Y:Cube was self-contained, energy-efficient as well as prefabricated which carried the same principles with the “Zip-Up house”. That project has formed from single units stacked to another unit which was self-contained 26 m². Each unit is constructructed from high quality, energy-efficient components (primarily renewable timber). The high-quality production method provided by the factory ensured that each module was error-free. Therefore, a very small amount of energy was required to heat each module. Water, heating and electircity can be easily connected to
Image 11: New Adaptation of Demountable House [4]
existing facilities or to other Y:Cube already on site. Rogers described that approach as ‘plug and play’ which provides demountable and additionable system [5] (img. 12). Additional units could be added in case necessity and whole developments could be taken apart and rebuilt in another locations (img. 13). This modern method of construction makes for a neighbourly, clean and quite site [6]. This design offers no promise of permanent accommodation. It offers the cost of rent below 35% of the London market, especially for young people on narrow incomes, for 3-5 years. This social enterprise helps the low income earners to develop economically and as a result provides suitable ground for them to leave housing to another needy. The fact that these modules are manufactured in the factory, easily stackable and growable allows them to expand according to the needs. It also offers an alternative proposal for narrow urban areas and semi-permanent communities [5].
Image 12: Y:Cube [5]
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Franche-Comte. It only included a single room which was created to be