An Offer They Cannot Refuse

Cellophane House by Kieran Timberlake Architects

Today the New York Times has an article about a show of prefab housing the Museum of Modern Art will put on in NYC this summer. In short:

To many people the term “prefab housing” calls to mind trailer parks. Yet lately prefabricated houses — built off site and then delivered largely complete — have become fashionable at architecture schools and among an upscale segment of the housing market. They pose a considerable design challenge.

Seizing the moment the Museum of Modern Art has commissioned five architects to erect their own prefab dwellings in a vacant lot on West 53rd Street, adjacent to the museum. Whittled down from a pool of about 400, the five architects are participating in “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,” an exhibition opening in July.

Right. So the houses are going to be erected on a vacant slab on 53rd Street adjacent to the museum and then people are going to walk through them? Nonsense. Bad idea. Stupid. If these houses are supposed to be good, somebody should live in them during the show and the people who view the exhibit should be visitors in the houses. That way, there'd be information about what living in these houses is actually like, and the houses would be given a real test: are they in fact liveable? Are they something you could actually enjoy living in?

So, I've decided that MoMA should call me up and make me an offer I cannot refuse. Invite me to live in one of the houses (hopefully one where I can write and live blog and cook) for a month or two as part of the exhibit. You know where I am. I am ready to negotiate a reasonable deal for this.

And no, this isn't because I want to live on East 53rd Street. It's because I am the missing link in this exhibit. I will rescue this exhibit from curatorial blundering. In fact, I will transform it into a performance. IN August, you can visit me at 7 am when I am in my pyjamas wandering around, making my morning protein shake in the blender, reading blogs on line and catching up on the news. What could be more normal? What could be more important for these houses?