Succulent House by murmur
a house with a bladder
Los Angeles architecture firm murmur have designed a house centred around a bladder that collects and stores rainwater. The house is commissioned to be built in Chicago.
The Succulent House addresses the pressing global issue of freshwater quality and supply as but one possible force to drive design ingenuity and improve environmental performance. This approach allows us to speculate on the organizational, spatial and atmospheric potential of water collection on the American house.
Organisationally, the roof area of the house is divided in two and its area maximized for water collection, storage and distribution. The inverted roof planes direct rainwater to storage cores around which program is distributed. Roofscape collection is experienced from the interior as the space rises and falls to meet the ceiling. The collected water is stored in bladders that respond to changes in seasonal rainfall. Like its namesake plant, the bladders exhibit succulence in times of increased water supply. In times of low supply, the bladders are loose and drapery like.
Principal architect of murmur, Heather Roberge is a practicing architect and educator in Los Angeles. She is Associate Vice Chair of the Department of Architecture at UCLA, and is Director of the undergraduate program in Architectural Studies. She teaches graduate courses in design and technology. Formerly, as co-principal of Gnuform, Ms. Roberge explored an architecture of effective atmospheres through a vitalist-materialist model of practice.
murmur continues these investigations, with a special focus on the spatial, structural and atmospheric innovation made possible by emerging digital design and manufacturing techniques. Ms. Roberge’s research focuses on the atmospheric implications of contemporary surfaces with particular interest in formal and material experimentation that engages the senses.
Succulent House | Empty Bladders
Succulent House | Filling Bladders
Succulent House | Full Bladders
Succulent House | View of Living Room
Succulent House | View from Kitchen
Succulent House | Aerial View
