The House Without Walls

This design led-research investigation challenges traditional notions of ‘house’ by building and reflecting upon Raimund Abraham’s theoretical explorations of the “Cosmology of the House”, as presented in his book [UN]BUILT. Abraham conceptualises that the primal vision of ‘house’ can be examined through metaphorical notions of archetypical stations, which he represents as rituals of dwelling relating to archaic memory.

In the introduction to [UN]BUILT, art historian Norbert Miller reflects that Abraham’s theoretical concept of the cosmology of the house represents an archetypical situation in which archaic memories are invoked, rather than a compilation of traditional programmatic and spatial representations. This design-led investigation builds upon Abraham’s experimental propositions by investigating how requisite programmatic elements of a house might also be invoked outside of traditional spatial representations.

Architectural narrative specialist Laura Hanks proposes a framework within which ritualised architectural programmatic ‘inhabitants’ can be ‘curated’ to create a sequential journey of dialectic oppositions. Historian and philosopher Mircea Eliade, in his seminal book The Sacred and The Profane, argues that liminal space becomes the threshold between two universal entities of being, the sacred and the profane. The thesis investigates how ritualised architectural ‘inhabitants’ representing archaic memories can evoke this liminal condition.

As this is a speculative design investigation, there is no physical site. The thesis investigation positions the focus of design and critical enquiry on programmatic elements represented as ritualised architectural ‘inhabitants’ and their ability to invoke a sequential journey of archaic memory within liminal spatial conditions. The design-led research explores how Raimund Abraham’s theoretical concept of a house without walls can be represented in an architectural form that incorporates programmatic elements typically associated with a house, while simultaneously reconnecting them with the poetic rituals of dwelling. Architectural strategies relating to archaic memory, the experiential, and liminality are critically engaged to achieve this research aim.