On trial in a flexible home

Architect and professor Elli Mosayebi has designed a small apartment where even fixed components can be moved. For a year, she had the convertible apartment in Zurich assessed by test residents.

They have set up a so-called "performative apartment" in Zurich. What is the idea behind it? 

In the city of Zurich, half of households are single-person households. A similar picture is emerging in other cities. Today there is a pluralism of life forms. Housing, however, is still based on the idea of a petty-bourgeois family home. Most single apartments are just shrunken apartments of the well-known cut. It would be possible to build small apartments that are as flexible as possible, which can be adapted to the individual and changing needs of the residents like a dress – depending on the mood and the phase of life. In this sense, "Performative" means customizable and changeable.

How do you create this changeability?

When it comes to changing living spaces, there is a certain inertia factor. In our apartment prototype, we have designed the performative elements in such a way that they are easy to move and make you want to change. They are intended to seduce to the transformation of the apartment and to enable movement, dance and choreography in the room.

What are the changeable elements specifically?

In the performative apartment, the rooms are not predefined. The apartment is more of a kind of hall that can be redesigned. For this purpose, we have installed a rotary wall, a rotary cabinet and swivel lamps. A pedestal by the window offers drawers and storage space and invites you to various uses. You need few of your own furniture. In order to motivate the test residents to move the movable design elements, they are mobile without the use of force and are equipped with handles and flaps, which one likes to touch.

What flexible uses of the rooms can be achieved with this?

With the movable elements, for example, a sleeping or retreat area can be separated when guests are there. The kitchen can be generously connected to the living area or separated. For example, if you think you're too untidy. Small apartments often do not offer a retreat space. With us already, thanks to rotatable walls.

How do you test whether the idea of performative housing proves its worth in practice?

Since 1 August 2019, test persons have been living for one week each in our "mock-up" for rehearsal. With angle sensors, we record how often and how they move the elements to change the spatial arrangement. In addition, the test persons write what they like about the performative elements.

Will the performative apartment enter the world of real housing?

Yes. We are planning a house in a central location in Zurich with an investor – with convertible small apartments on 20 to 50 square meters each. The experience of our test residents with the performative apartment and the performance of the technical elements will be incorporated into the construction and design of these apartments.

Movable floor plans

The architecture professor Elli Mosayebi is experimenting with a new type of apartment that can be changed according to your needs: the convertible or "performative" apartment. The apartment with movable walls and cupboards by Elli Mosayebi stands on the roof of an ETH building in Zurich. In the black-clad wooden building, new people move in week after week and capture their experiences.

Architect with vision

Elli Mosayebi is co-founder of the architectural firm EMI in Zurich. Since 2018, she has been teaching as a professor of architecture and design at ETH Zurich. Previously, she taught at the Technical University of Darmstadt.

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