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The following page provides a short timeline of the project. Milestones and key results are presented in chronological order. Starting at the bottom of the page with the initiation of the project ‘polymorphic rooms’ in 2021 up to the most recent developments of today at the top of this page.
It is a story of a location-independent and universally applicable design concept and its products developed by an interdisciplinary team of designers, architects, craftsmen and engineers.
Upon finalizing the prototypes, documentation of the design process and comprehensive building manuals for the assorted objects were compiled. Following the successful conclusion of the two-year grant from the ‘Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt’ (DBU, engl. German Federal Environmental Foundation) all projects were made available to the public through this online platform in March 2024. Everyone can now access, share and contribute to the here presented content.
Spread across different location ideas were gathered and developed. In February 2022 a first workshop took place in Karlsruhe where the entire team came together to discuss and try out the ideas. Focusing mostly on furniture at this point the design of the universal R5 connector was born.
In the following months the requirements and pre-design for all other objects: Sanitary, Light, Electronic and Room & Partition Wall were developed. Online as well as in person meetings and further small workshops were held. Being one of the most challenging objects a dedicated workshop for the Sanitary objects took place in November 2022.
To try out our idea the Future Action Collective applied for funding at the ‘Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt’ (DBU, engl. German Federal Foundation for the Environment).
In the summer of 2021, the DBU granted support for the project. Following the good news, an interdisciplinary team of designers, architects, engineers and craftsmen began to work on implementing the concept.
The idea of ‘polymorphic rooms’ resulted from the concept and design phase of the renovation and extension of the inner courtyard building Ruodlf Fünf in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Seeking to reduce our consumption of resources and building materials we concluded that flexible, modular building fit-outs are inevitable. The concept of ‘polymorphic rooms’ aims to provide a practical answer to the following two questions: What does it take to achieve maximum utilisation of space (space sufficiency) and how can we make sustainable, resource-efficient living possible in urban contexts?
Thanks to an optimized design ‘polymorph’ fit-out objects itself consume a minimum amount of mostly bio-based resources and are fully reusable or recyclable. In addition, their modular design allows fast adaptation of the built environment itself as well as use of the same object across different use-case scenarios.
