Shape-shifting apartment in berlin

In the classic story The Little Prince, a simple illustration demonstrates how the contents of a space can define the overall shape of the space. The illustration looks like a hat at first, but further reading and a second illustration reveal that the first image was of a boa constrictor swallowing a gigantic elephant. The hat shape was actually the snake’s body conforming to the contours of the elephant’s shape. In a similar fashion, Frankfurt architecture firm reinhardtjung gave a shape-shifting apartment in Berlin a kind of fluid and changeable interior shape. Walls

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Walls pivot and slide to alter the functionality of the interior spaces as needed. The white on white color scheme disguises the borders and thresholds of the spaces, allowing the residents to define each interior area themselves.

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While most homes’ interior spaces are defined by a single function and by the existing physical boundaries (like walls) between spaces, the FNS Apartments are far more open to interpretation. Residents can simply redefine spaces as needed or desired, “floating” the boundaries in whatever way seems appropriate at that moment.

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Housing, in this way, becomes far more fluid and user-defined rather than a static program handed over from architect to resident with little room for interpretation or experimentation. It is now a hybrid of space and function – a series of areas defined by the way the resident is using them at that time.

About Reinhardt Jung

“reinhardt_jung is a Frankfurt based office acting as architects, educators and researchers: Dagmar Reinhardt and Alexander Jung. The office work covers theory, education, building, curatorial collaborations, exhibitions, installations, publications, academic research and architectural projects. reinhardt_jung’s work has been exhibited in Europe and Australia in an architectural and artistic contexts. Their practice-based and entrepreneurial pursuits are grounds for exploratory investigation, for prototyping and conceptual transfer from which research-practice-business collaborations emerge.”

“Reinhardt_jung are regularly producers and collaborators of international projects integrating urbanism, architecture and installation art. reinhardt_jung understand the process of architecture as teamwork with students and colleagues, with clients and builders. The development of progressive spatial constructions, new modes of inhabiation, the integration of cultural and social aspects, the rethinking of architectural procedures are our field of interest and expertise.”