Family House of the Future 25 years later

In the late 1990s, MURATOR organized a series of competitions for affordable, rational single-family houses under the slogan “The Accessible House.” JEMS took part in these competitions by submitting projects and serving on the jury. The competition held just before the turn of the century was exceptional. Participants were asked to design a “House of the Future.”

Our project, which received first prize, proposed a centrally planned house organized around a massive core. A lightweight steel frame filled with wooden wall panels and prefabricated concrete floor slabs was conceived as an open structure that could be arranged in various ways using pre-designed modular elements. We envisioned it for mass production.

To our surprise, a private investor emerged who decided to build our concept. Mr. Sławek introduced only a few functional modifications, fully embracing the structural and construction system, the material solutions, and the many passive methods of shaping the indoor climate, including ground heat exchangers.

The house is still functioning well today. Looking back after twenty-five years, it seems that the fundamental idea of the house has stood the test of time as an architectural, environmental, and energy-efficient concept. Certainly, for a one-off realization, it would have been more rational to use masonry walls, cast-in-place floor slabs, and to rethink how interior arrangements could adapt to the changing needs of its users. However, this would not have altered the essential character of the house.