The Transformable House by Jonathan Bell
Contemporary architect-designed houses are always a popular subject matter, having a broad appeal and application beyond architectural professionals. This issue of Architectural Design focuses on experimental house design, covering past, present and future forays into the creation of transformable domestic spaces. It particularly concentrates on houses that have adopted modular and kinetic architectures to make their spaces and forms highly flexible. Modular and prefabricated architectures have been adopted throughout the 20th century to capitalize on the revolutionary possibilites of new material technologies, ranging from concrete and steel framing devices to the most current IT innovations. Even more radical is kinetic architecture that dissolves space so that physical elements are in flux.