2,5³ - everything cube

2,5³ is a minimal living cube. Its inspiration reaches back to the 60 ‘s and 70 ‘s of the last century, when many architects and designers were concerned with ideas of modular and mobile living structures and wanted to revolutionise social canons.

Negation of consumerism and the idea of contemporary nomadism have led to visionary concepts like the modular micro-houses of Ken Isaacs, Joe Colombos multifunctional “total furnishing unit” or the “living cube” concept of Victor Papanek and James Hennessey. Since our studies we were interested in minimal living spaces and minimal forms of housing. Besides that, this project was led by our fascination for special, complex and specific forms and archetypes of furniture with varying scales. We designed the 2.5m by 2.5m by 2.5m intimate, nomadic living space as a reinterpretation of the „living cube“ of Papanek and Hennessey.

The main difference to the original concept is that Papanek and Hennessey designed several cubes for particular functions, like a relaxation cube, or a working cube, whereas our concept recognises, that spatial ideas have dramatically changed by the use of notebooks, smartphones and the web. We need less space, as there are less books, less paper, no fax, no television and so on. Another important aspect in our project is the cult-of-less-movement.  Its followers regard belongings as a burden,  not as means to show off wealth, status and success in life. They want to move, to travel, to take new jobs, be more independent and achieve this by scaling down on their habits and belongings, even counting them and trying to reach ever lower numbers.

We designed this updated multifunctional cube, which consists of a desk that can be converted into a kitchen, a rolling cupboard that can be unfolded to a dinner table for two, a large closet, bed, mirror and drawer. A special chair is designed for the height of the kitchen/desk and by folding it one can climb on top of the cube to appreciate the view or read a book. The entire cube can be closed off with textiles to protect ones intimate space. The nomadic structure can be installed in about one hour.

Year: 2013
Dimension:  250x250x250cm
Commission: Gallery Arsenal, Poznan
Curated by: Magdalena Poplawska