The wall is an integral architectural entity. Its identity as boundary provides delineation, closure and separation. It is a fundamental primitive in the organization of space and is explicit, no matter the specific form or scale in which it manifests itself. Commonly, the wall acts as a negator, closing space and effectively becoming an erasure for what rests on opposite sides of its bounds.
The capabilities of a shift-able wall begin to entertain the possibility of subversion in a wall’s most basic character. Developing a wall that could become a relationship in and of itself, would enhance interaction from one side to another and fundamentally alter the underlying concept of boundary and of edge. The creation of a Relationship Wall and its implementation in a prototypical urban housing unit would provoke chaotic, uneasy social response.
The replacement of a rigid system for one whose shift-ability and variability blur the predefined standard of living and dwelling, would serve to foster a hyper-urban interaction that manifests itself in the literal, physical negotiation of space and program. It calls into question the bounds of personal space, privacy and comfort, and the viability or relevance of a previously understood circumstance of the wall. It presupposes a condition that requires an efficiency and codependency in dwelling within a culture whose social, economic, technological and environmental landscapes are continually evolving. In doing so it tests a social tension, forcing individual users to share and interact using the now flexible boundaries of their normally secluded spaces.
The flexible wall becomes activated in its moments of conflict and cooperation, developing interactivity amongst its users whose personal bounds can no longer be explicitly marked.
All work was completed at Pratt Institute in spring semester of 2010, under studio professors Christoph a. Kumpusch and Yael Erel.