Last November it was inaugurated at the National Building Museum of Washington the exhibition Making room: Housing for a Changing America – The open house, a project by the Architect Pierluigi Colombo of Clei with the collaboration of Resource Furniture USA. For this ambitious project, Newfloor has provided 3 different types of raised floor with a top covering of ceramic tile. In the museum it has been created a multifunctional apartment at a scale of 1:1. The plan remains the same during the 9 months of exhibition, while the internal furniture is going to change every 3 months, depending on the various housing needs of the 3 different types of inhabitants.
Newfloor has chosen 3 different types of ceramic tiles depending on the different rooms. In the terrace it has been installed a raised access floor made of 60×60 cm panels with a core of calcium sulphate 30mm thk 1500kg/mc density and the ceramic tile Tagina Apogeo Anthracite as top finishing; in another room it has been decided to use the ceramic tile Caesar One Indigo. Fort the major part of the flat it has been used a calcium sulphate panel dim. 60x120cm with 3 ce
ramic tiles dim. 60x120cm wood effect by Ergon.
The various multifunctional solutions are designed to meet the needs of 3 different types of inhabitants:
- Three young students who share the room (roommates)
- A girl with her baby and her mother (extended family)
- Two retired people who sometimes hosts their nephews; in this apartment there’s an independent one-bedroom apartment to rent.
This project aims to adapt the environment to the demographic change and to the new living standards, not only Americans’ but of many big cities all over the world. The traditional idea of house with its typical division of the domestic spaces is over, and it’s now possible to design the spaces more cleverly.
From this perspective, the raised floor achieve an important role in the civil context. The installation without the need of glue or other substances, enables to reduce the construction schedule, allows the interchangeability of the panels and allows the area underneath the substructure to be inspected at any time.
The exhibition can be visited from 18 November 2017 to 16 September 2018.