ITEN

Typology

Sun-o-rama

A compact home for young people that occupies no land: it floats on an urban river and turns like a sunflower to keep its solar panels facing the sun. Several units can form a small off-grid community.

  1. 01Compact homes for young people
  2. 02Buoyancy and rotation, efficiency and configurability
  3. 03A small community
Type
Competition
Sector
Living, interiors
Status
Concept

01

Compact homes for young people

The competition brief called for a compact home for overcrowded cities, where students and young couples struggle to establish homes of their own. The subject felt particularly relevant, not least because further construction on land consumes more ground. People in their twenties often use their homes differently, spending much of the day out and returning to eat, sleep and leave again. We added another consideration to the brief: the needs of people with disabilities. We sought a small, accessible home that could generate its own energy and offer a different way to live in the city.

Three floating houses with solar panels on the roof, moored along the bank of a river in front of city buildings

02

Buoyancy and rotation, efficiency and configurability

Many major European cities have a river running through them. This suggested building on water rather than land: a floating home avoids occupying additional land and can bring activity to areas beyond the city centre. Water offered another possibility. The house sits on a rotating platform designed to follow the sun like a sunflower, orienting the roof-mounted solar panels to maximise energy generation. The same rotation allows residents to choose a view towards the river or the bank and adjust their privacy.

Exploded construction view of the house: pontoons, rotating platform, structure, roof with solar panels; on the left, diagrams of the path of the sun and of ventilation

03

A small community

Several units could form a small village: an energy-self-sufficient community with room for both shared life and privacy. The bathroom follows Universal Design principles, with step-free access and wide doorways throughout the home. The houses use prefabricated components already available on the market and would be installed from the water using a crane-equipped barge. In marinas and harbours, they could offer a practical, economical housing solution.

Plan of the unit on the circular platform and three elevations of the house on its pontoons, with human figures for scale

Where it can lead

Living on water can open up new possibilities for urban space, energy and community.