Tiny Houses

Verbandkammer: The compact modular office you can sleep in

Verbandkammer: The compact modular office you can sleep in
The Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
The Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
View 17 Images
The Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
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The Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
Designed by architecture and design practice Nilsson Pflugfelder, Verbandkammer is designed as an all-in-one living and working space aimed at visual artists
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Designed by architecture and design practice Nilsson Pflugfelder, Verbandkammer is designed as an all-in-one living and working space aimed at visual artists
Verbandkammer will be on display at FLACC till September 30
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Verbandkammer will be on display at FLACC till September 30
The Verbandkammer crams an impressive number of building functions through its 40 modules
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The Verbandkammer crams an impressive number of building functions through its 40 modules
The Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
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The Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
Designed by architecture and design practice Nilsson Pflugfelder, Verbandkammer is designed as an all-in-one living and working space aimed at visual artists
6/17
Designed by architecture and design practice Nilsson Pflugfelder, Verbandkammer is designed as an all-in-one living and working space aimed at visual artists
The Verbandkammer crams an impressive number of building functions through its 40 modules
7/17
The Verbandkammer crams an impressive number of building functions through its 40 modules
Verbandkammer will be on display at FLACC till September 30
8/17
Verbandkammer will be on display at FLACC till September 30
The Verbandkammer crams an impressive number of building functions through its 40 modules
9/17
The Verbandkammer crams an impressive number of building functions through its 40 modules
Verbandkammer will be on display at FLACC till September 30
10/17
Verbandkammer will be on display at FLACC till September 30
The Verbandkammer crams an impressive number of building functions through its 40 modules
11/17
The Verbandkammer crams an impressive number of building functions through its 40 modules
The Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
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The Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
End view of the Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
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End view of the Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
Comupter model of the Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
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Comupter model of the Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
Comupter model of the Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
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Comupter model of the Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
Comupter model of the Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
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Comupter model of the Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
Comupter model of the Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
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Comupter model of the Verbandkammer modular workspace by Nilsson Pflugfelder
View gallery - 17 images

Designed by architecture and design practice Nilsson Pflugfelder, Verbandkammer is conceived as an all-in-one living and working space aimed at visual artists, cramming an impressive number of building functions through its 40 modules, including work desks, meeting areas, archive shelving and sleeping quarters, into a compact, efficient (if perhaps a little cramped) space. And, as you'd probably expect these days, the 40 modules can be rearranged so that the Verbandkammer can be reconfigured at will.

Custom built at the request of the FLACC workplace for visual artists in Genk, Belgium, Verbandkammer has been constructed using 11 types of frame with 10 different cladding materials. Its makers claim it incorporates six separate "programmatic entities," which we interpret to mean building functions.

Other than the bias towards Mac computers in the shots, there's no reason why non-visual artists wouldn't benefit from a Verbandkammer, too. After all, we all like cocoons, don't we?

The Verbandkammer crams an impressive number of building functions through its 40 modules
The Verbandkammer crams an impressive number of building functions through its 40 modules

Here's the bulk of the architects' description, with a few explanatory notes thrown in from us in case they're useful:

The Verbandkammer is a form of institutional memory—a sedimentation and fossilisation of information.

It has shelves.

As a cross-section through the institutional shifts, it gauges where FLACC has been in the past, where it is situated at the present, and acts as a firm foundation from where the institution can project towards the future.

We suggest you put things on the shelves in date order.

It is a framework for mining and reusing existing information previously produced at FLACC – a tangible feedback loop obsessed with keeping past information in the productive present.

Feel free to take things off the shelves. (But please put them back).

In its second guise post-Manifesta 9, the Verbandkammer will move from the ground floor gallery to FLACC’s spaces on the first floor where the various elements will be reconfigured to enable and guide future thinking and production at the institution.

We didn't make a note of how we put this thing together, so when we put it back together upstairs, it's going to look different.

The building of an archive and the formation of coal are deeply intertwined in that they are both bound up with geological processes of sedimentation, layering, compression and fossilisation creating dense stratifications of matter. Unlike the finite and irreversible process of coal mining, the mining of the Verbandkammer is a sustainable act in that it is concerned both with retrieval and production of matter.

It's black.

Verbandkammer will be on display at FLACC till September 30, after which time they're going to shift it upstairs for the artists to play with.

Source: Nilsson Pflugfelder, via Design Milk

View gallery - 17 images
10 comments
10 comments
Jarmo Nieminen
That's as useful a space as the inside of a giant slinky tied to a knot. It's also wasting both internal and external space with the slanted surfaces, and looking at the ergonomics, the "computer space" with stairs as seating... Ouch. I'd much rather take a small office with a sofa..
Michael Crumpton
I am not sure what purpose (other than looking cool) the chamfered corners serve. They decrease the interior volume/storage and increase the complexity radically, without any advantage I can see.
Jon A.
It combines the worst features of first and third world housing.
Albalma
Wow, the slavists came together with Palpatine's architects to create this awesome death trap! Amazingly dull and mindless!
Bob64
Is it April 1st?
I like the guy sitting on the step trying to use the computer, very ergonomic! (not)
Olivia Trojak
A) it looks uncomfortable to do any kind of art work in. and B) for such a small space i feel like i would get lost in it. o.O
EvilBunny
I read the articles and I seldom comment but this I feel I need to say something....a) if you use this in a space big enough so that you can "move and reconfigure" it then you have enough space already.
Mzungu_Mkubwa
"a compact modular office you can sleep in" ??? This is nothing new! I sleep in my itty-bitty cube at work every day! (and the boss keeps pushing my desk further back, and threatening to take away my red stapler!)
...
oops, did I say "sleep"? I meant "meditate"! :-)
Tim Nelson
Definitely not something I would want to work or sleep in. Did you see those wingnuts near the bed? Wouldn't that be fun to tear your cheek open on?
Jon Smith
A design only the Borg could love...