International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam
Rural Studio’s Front Porch team was invited to participate in the 11th edition of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), which took place June through October 2024 at the Nieuwe Instituut Museum in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Led by Jennifer Pindyck, Margaret Fletcher, and Mackenzie Stagg, the exhibit featured the 18×18 Research House. The team took this opportunity to illuminate our understanding that a house is situated within a complex but often invisible “system-of-systems,” and that a careful consideration of exactly what kind of systems these are, is vital to shaping our understanding of housing affordability.
The kind of a problem a house is.
In “the kind of problem a city is,” the final chapter of Jane Jacobs’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs argues that it is perhaps more important to understand what kind of problem cities pose, rather than what the problem is. The Front Porch team has come to better understand a house as an organizational device that serves to combine, leverage, and amplify capital, wealth, safety, health, comfort, social structures, community values, and much, much more across time and generations.
In other words, the challenges of equitable and affordable housing access will not be addressed through bricks and mortar alone. Houses—and the larger system of housing—are complex, adaptive systems. And, until we recognize that current conditions are an intentional outcome of discriminatory policies and programs, we will never be able to truly address these challenges. As designers, the built environment is our medium for making these invisible systems visible. It is a platform upon which we, our partners, and our communities can all work together to imagine alternate potential futures.
18×18 Research House
The 18×18 Research House aims to fulfill the need for a small, adaptable, multistory house in both urban and rural settings. The dimensions and name—18’x18’— comes from the size of two parking spaces, as some cities are negotiating with developers to lessen parking requirements in exchange for inclusion of additional affordable housing units. The small footprint also allows the design to function as an accessory dwelling unit (ADU). ADUs can be built on single-family properties to create more density and housing opportunities in urban neighborhoods. In rural areas, such a small house can be built on family properties that may not have buildable space for a larger home. Rural properties often have obstacles such as septic fields, power lines, drainage areas, or existing structures that can drastically reduce the buildable footprint. The 18×18 House can provide extra space for a growing family or to maintain the kinship network in situations where space may not exist for additions or new construction.
The Exhibition and the Team
Front Porch team members Rusty Smith and Mackenzie Stagg traveled to Rotterdam in June to set up the materials in the exhibition space of the Nieuwe Instituut, installing the board and model in time for the opening symposium of the Biennale. On October 12, 2024, team members Christian Ayala and Betsy Farrell Garcia participated in the closing conversation, entitled Flourishing Futures. They presented in a panel session focused on Land and Policy, considering how financial influences shape land use and how designers can respond within policy constraints, and even challenge them.
Student Design Team: Jake Buell, Julie DiDeo, Meagan Mitchell, and Naomi Tony- Alabi
Teaching Team: Andrew Freear, Steve Long, and John Marusich
Research Team: Seth Aude, Margaret Fletcher, Elizabeth Farrell Garcia, Christian Ayala Lopez, Emily McGlohn, Jennifer Pindyck, Rusty Smith, and Mackenzie Stagg