模块化设计，未来的住房新模式

Design, Architecture: Cutwork

Client: Bouygues Immobilier

Unit Floor Area: 26 sq-m

Prototype Location: Expo Porte de Versailles, 1 Place de la Porte de Versailles, 75015 Paris, FR

PolyRoom is a prototype for prefab modular studio units to be constructed for French developer Bouygues Immobilier's new shared co-living brand.

Key features

An effort to reinvent the traditional family French living model, the project centres on PolyRooms, or prefab, modular construction units for bedrooms. Bouygues Immobilier's concept for its forthcoming brand comprises will see these 26-sq-m units stacked together much like Lego bricks, resulting in whole new residential blocks. Aimed at working people between 25 and 40 years of age, the homes are designed to address myriad social and urban issues that exist today, from loneliness and the pressures of WFH to the increasingly inaccessible housing market. Cutwork has also conceived the PolyRooms to promote greater biodiversity in neighbourhoods, with generously planted balconies, façades and rooftops.

The first site of the Bouygues Immobilier development plan will be located in Bordeaux – the company plans to open 15 sites by 2025, totalling at 2,500 bedrooms for future residents. These prospective inhabitants are set to have the option of renting a short- or long-term stay, with all-inclusive services offered. The interiors themselves are inspired by the Japanese concept of washitsu, a central room with no defined purpose. In Cutwork's plan, this facilitates the kind of versatility needed in today's living environments, especially in urban areas where space is limited. Furniture is adaptable as possible: the bed, for example, folds up when not in use, and sliding partitions allow privacy where required.

Frame's take

Design is most powerful when it embodies a time instead of just responding to it. Cutwork believes that prefab concepts such as PolyRoom are the answer to the criticality of flexibility, relentless demand for urban housing, the need to accommodate the needs of different family models and the preservation of local ecologies. As Antonin Yuji Maeno, Cutwork cofounder and lead architect, says: 'It's no longer about the amount of sq m we live in, but about living in polyvalent spaces that are designed to be reconfigured to fit all our intimate and social needs.' The cooperation between Cutwork and Bouygues Immobilier is a great sign that residential power players are paying attention.