Allan Wexler, Crate House, New York, USA, 1991

The Crate House basically involves an empty white cube with a door opening in each of the walls and four crates, mounted on wheels, which can be pushed independently through the door openings and positioned anywhere inside the space. These crates accommodate all the furniture and utensils needed to equip a two-person household to Western standards. When necessary, a “bedroom”, a “bathroom”, a “kitchen” and a “living room” can each be moved into the empty shell and serve as a functional living space. It can be seen as a design for a kind of “survival unit”, which would allow “civilized” life to Western standard in the smallest conceivable ground area (230*230 cm) and could be interpreted as a practical suggestion for solving housing problems. Crate House examines our present lives as if historical. Each crate is like a diorama in an anthological museum. Each function is isolated and studied: kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom. When one function is needed that crate is rolled inside the core. At night the entire house becomes a bedroom and when the occupant is hungry the entire house becomes a kitchen. The basic activities are pared down to essential artifacts needed and desired. The pillow. The spoon. The flashlight. The pot. The salt. Isolated they are sculpture, their use becomes theater.(Agostinelli 2017)

References:

Agostinelli, Paolo. 2017. “Crate House”. Allanwexlerstudio.Com. http://www.allanwexlerstudio.com/projects/crate-house.

Fehr, Michael. “Allan Wexler, Crate House” Domus Magazine (October 1993): p. 20-2

Reviewed March 2017 by:
Yue Shang
Xiaolin Lu
Lizhongyang Zhou
Adelina Muntean