The Skewed Shelter

The skewed shelter is designed not as an autonomous cell, but as the nucleus of a dynamic process of habitation, both inwardly and outwardly.

It is designed as a finished framework whose structure is externally fixed, but internally expands within the constraints of the external frame. It is capable of providing both gradual, internal growth for the home, as well as a completed urban space, thus predefining the urban form of the complex and the area it occupies.

The proposed skewed shape of the unit is not an imposed aesthetic; rather, it reflects the generative principle of dynamic growth and motion which is embedded in its shape. The skew is a directing, not directed force, evoking a kind of "spatial destiny" conducting rules of connectivity, extendibility, and voided space. This results in the units’ growth into evolutionary schemes and configurations, creating a variety of spatial qualities in the blocks and neighbourhoods it creates.

The master plan evolves as a flexible system, which modifies itself in the desired social structure, density, area size and urban network.

The skewed housing concept has been designed by Anamorphosis as a model proposal that can be appropriated to a range of contexts. As well as the Elemental competition, another example is the London Architecture Biennale 2006 (LAB 06) where the project was approporiated to take part in an exhibition titled "The World in One City - A Sketch for London". The project was titled "The Skewed Housing - A Sketch Model" and was proposed for London's residential-developing areas, such as the athletes’ village for the Olympics 2012, or for any project aiming at new urban contexts.