The flat as answeringmachine
Site area: 400m2
Gross floor area: 300m2
Volume: 2500m3
Client: Kika, Vienna, Austria
Structural Engineering: D.I. Franz Sam, Vienna, Austria

Everybody collects something consciously or unconsciously. It’s an impulse, a desire to own something, to keep it and never give it away. Collecting is an attempt to deal with the fact that time passes and is lost forever. Collecting shall represent identity within the permanent passage of time through material proof.

The flat as an asweringmachine stores time and atmosphere. While the inhabitant is out the flat collects what happens; noise, light, smells, visitors, weather...It closes the gap between the videotaped familyevent and the time not experienced at home.
In our society the number of things to remember has increased so much that they can no longer be critically reflected upon or evaluated. At the same time there is social pressure to be involved in everything. Under such circumstances there is always the danger of making the wrong decision and we can end up wanting to keep everything just to be prepared for all eventualities - a type of insurance against missing out on things.
Information disposal becomes a problem - who likes to throw away videos, books, records, CDs, or pieces of art. Pieces of writing, even unimportant notes, are kept. The problem is, if everything that might sometime be useful is stored, nothing is thrown away, how are we going to save ourselves from drowning in this systematic overproduction?
The flat as answeringmachine keeps things only for a definite period of time and after that destroys the data forever. There will be no permanent storage, just various “halflives” instead.