16.5 x 23 cm

ISBN 978-3-85881-885-0

The phenomenon of tiny houses fascinates as much as designing a home and is currently trending in various media. Yet interest in this architectural form is often superficial, driven by fantasies and lifestyle trends. In times of large migratory movements due to climate change, conflicts, or poverty and lack of economic prospects, however, there is an urgent demand for new types of temporary shelter. Open House discusses the topic of temporary housing in architecture, art, design, and humanitarian aid. Eighteen international authors explore the intentions behind such constructions, their underlying principles, and the lifestyle they convey. Their contributions reveal how these concepts relate to the very notion of habitat, to space, to pragmatic criteria, as well as to the time in which they are elaborated. Moreover, they address various issues of individual housing through the featured original installations and spatial experiments.

Open House is published in conjunction with a two-year research project and an open-air exhibition of the same title in Geneva in summer 2022. Together, the book and exhibition comprise around forty designs by artists, architects, designers, architecture schools, research institutions, and humanitarian organizations, such as Andrea Zittel, Anupama Kundoo, Atelier van Lieshout, Carla Juaçaba, EPFL Laboratoire ALICE, Frida Escobedo, Gramazio Kohler Research at ETH Zurich, John Armleder, Kerim Seiler, Matti Suuronen, Maurizio Cattelan and Philippe Parreno, Shelter Projects, and others.

Contributions by Joseph Ashmore and Laura Keykoop, Vincent Barras, Donatella Bernardi, Gabriela Burkhalter, Elisabeth Chardon, Gilles Clément, Stephane Collet, Vilém Flüsser, Hans Hollein, Simon Lamunière, Fiona Meadows, Alessandro Mendini, Bruce Nauman, Charles Pictet, Evelyn Steiner, Daniel Zamarbide, and Andrea Zittel

Simon Lamunière is a curator based in Geneva and director of the Open House project and exhibition in 2021/22. His previous engagements include the Domaine du Muy (Le Muy, France, 2014–16), the Neon Parallax (Geneva, 2006–13), Art Unlimited art fair (Basel, 2000–11), the 11th Swiss sculpture exhibition Utopics (Biel/Bienne, 2009), the documenta X website (1997), and the Centre pour l'Image contemporaine (Geneva, 1992–2004).