Flexihouse: A Revolutionary Approach to Urban Living

Architect Seyed Roozbeh Ghaemmaghami Designs a Flexible Residential Complex for the Middle Class

Flexihouse is inspired by the human inhabitant's requirements. The design process took into account economic and cultural issues, making residential area valuable for middle-class people. The design is based on spatial and temporal requirements, allowing users to change their spaces according to the usage duration with the power of flexibility.

As urban population growth and immigration to metropolises increase, problems like housing requirement and lack of services become more prevalent. Flexibility is a response to these problems. It provides maximum use in space and is a response to different requirements for inhabitants in limited space. The result is a small house that provides low costs, saves materials, and offers desirable spaces for people, reducing the undesirable effects of low area and lack of inhabitant spatial requirements.

The Flexihouse was realized using movable walls in interior design and a dynamic facade made of fiber cement. The best shapes for using flexibility are cubic forms, suitable for maximum use in space and structure stability. Coordinating with the site and urban context informed the form of the building. The site area is 15000 square meters and the designed area is 24000 square meters.

Flexihouse is the result of applied research aimed at finding a solution for the design of housing for middle-classes. The need for a shelter as a financial, spiritual, and natural need is in every human being and it is the stimulus itself for construction. Flexibility is suggested to deal with multidimensional minimum spaces in order to make maximum efficiency and bring them closer to optimal spaces.

Designing Flexihouse was not without its challenges. Coordinating between construction rules, inhabitant, and flexibility was a significant hurdle. However, the use of movable walls and furniture have been proposed and it can reduce the amount of occupied space and prepare the space for optimal use. The project is located in district 2 of Tehran.

Flexihouse was awarded Silver in A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award in 2018. The Silver A' Design Award is rewarded to top-of-the-line, creative, and professionally remarkable designs that illustrate outstanding expertise and innovation. These designs, admired for their strong technical characteristics and splendid artistic skill, showcase a remarkable level of excellence and introduce positive feelings, amazement, and wonder.