Place Not Of Place: The Moveable Home: A Critique of Suburbia

Home is an architectural construct, one which historically is a product of a specific place. However, as place has become progressively more and more generic, architecturally, socially, communally, so too has the concept of home become more generic and at odds with the individual person. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate an alternative possibility, one which is based on the person as the design impetus. What if home were not about place,but about person? It is the purpose of this project to formulate a response to a uniquely American history, one which is founded on individualism, nomadicism, and self-sufficiency. This tradition stands in stark contrast to the American Suburb as a representation of how Americans live, and thus this project stands as a critique of the American Suburb as an appropriate American home-form. The counterpoint to the Suburban type and method of life is the moveable home, a home built from the inside out, which adapts as location changes, but as a physical manifestation of home presents a stable and nurturing place, not dependent on place, but in place, not just for a person, but from a person.