ARCHITECTURE – Rapid urbanization and
relentless housing crises in big cities give
rise to a need for affordable and sustainable
housing solutions. Questioning contempo-
rary modes of production, Julia Baltsavia
suggests an open-source construction
system for self-build homes. While living in
London, Baltsavia couldn’t escape the city’s
well-known housing crisis. The UK capital’s
housing stock is controlled by an oligopoly
of big developers, and currently only 20 per
cent of the population have the financial
resources to build a house. Inspired by the
reactionary wave of alternative housing
schemes based on open-source paradigms
- including Architecture 00’s Wikihouse;
Ensamble Studio; and Inventing the Future:
Postcapitalism and a World without Work,
in which Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams
espouse open-source platforms – Baltsavia
designed and developed I-Architecture
as her graduation project at the Bartlett
School of Architecture UCL. Exhibited at
Global Grad Show 2018 in Dubai, I-Archi-
tecture is an online-distributed construc-
tion system based on a kit of parts that can
be combined in multiple ways. Designed
to democratize the planning and building
of cities, it proposes an automated mode
of production and a sustainable alternative
to the one-size-fits-all products offered by
major property developers.
I-Architecture invites consumers to define
their personal living spaces. Baltsavia cites
the Fourth Industrial Revolution when
explaining her rationale. ‘With the expan-
sion of the Internet of Things and the
development of digital technologies acces-
sible to all, users... become prosumers with
almost zero marginal production cost,’ she
says. ‘A new era has arrived that embraces a
more collective and democratic paradigm in
production in all fields.’ Her project shiftsthe role of the architect as designer (of a
predefined product) to that of the overseer
of a framework whose users can intervene
directly and customize according to indi-
vidual needs. ‘The user is empowered
to take ownership of the design, as well
as to download its blueprints and digitally
fabricate the kit of parts. In an attempt to
respond to a more flexible way of living, the
I-beam system allows for open-ended sets
that can be adjusted without limit.’ – ATOBJECTS 27