Hulk House

A little while ago I saw a design competition that’s premise was to design a residence for a single person of significance to you (ie a historical figure, family member, fictional character, etc.). Shortly after seeing this, I decided to fuse two of my passions: ARCHITECTURE + COMIC BOOKS.

I decided to start designing homes for super heroes. As time passed, I made very slow progress on the project and jumped from one hero to another. Realizing that I was running out of time before I left to attend grad school, I decided to give myself one week to design and complete final production for this project. May I present to you…

HULK HOUSE:

The Hulk is an incredibly destructive force that is fueled by anger. However, inside this monster is an incredibly established scientist, Dr. Bruce Banner, who specializes in gamma radiation. The main concept behind this home was to provide a place for Dr. Banner to retreat to after a Hulk episode. The home should provide adequate facilities to keep Dr. Banner away from civilization until he has fully recovered physically and mentally from his outburst. This means that the home should provide opportunities to continue a normal life without human interaction, spaces to pursue hobbies and kill time, spaces to continue research, areas that provide sustenance, and spaces for meditation/relaxation. The programmatic requirements are as follows:

As Dr. Banner moves through his home, it should become progressively more removed and private so that he may avoid sudden fits of anger and is able to retreat to spaces that allow for different degrees of rest and solitude. The shape/form of the building is derived from the very gamma waves that created the Hulk:

Glazing that is continuously less transparent allows each wave to take on different light qualities and levels of privacy. As Dr. Banner progresses through his house, each wave is more removed from the outside world than the last.

The design elements and functions of each wave are described in the following image:

For a one week design process, I think this project turned out rather well. Perhaps it isn’t portfolio worthy, but it was a good warm-up for returning back to school. It really forced me to think about what aspects of the architecture are most worth my time to present in order to convey the overall design ideas and concepts. Although I didn’t produce any plans or sections, I think the above diagrams show why the residence looks the way it does, the axon shows how it functions, and the rendering shows how the home will feel.

Some fun things to note: If you look closely at the above rendering, you will see that the Hulk is actually standing in the flex space, possibly trying to calm down and prevent a destructive episode. Also, in the living space, you can see that The Avengers film seems to be playing on a loop.