Procedural Architecture - A NEW way of Living?

Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins created a new way of approaching Architecture, called Procedural Architecture.  To do this, they set up the Reversible Destiny project.  It is all based on the the principle that the mind and the immune system of young, but especially older people, need to be challenged on a daily basis, in order to keep young and functioning at our best throughout our life, without a fall in later years.  Current Architecture seems to follow the opposite strategy.  Every thing has to be as easy and accessible as possible, not challenging to the occupier, striving for a constant state of relaxation.  More information and a video below.


These nine Flats were created in Japan, in the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka, using pre-cast concrete, reinforced concrete and steel frame construction.  Their design challenges the owner and occupier of the flats in many different ways, some short term and some of them, long term.  Apartments come with uneven floors so that you have to concentrate to get from one side of the flat to the other.  They come with no built in wardrobes so that you have to figure out the best way to incorporate them.  Light switches positioned in awkward positions and a veranda door that has to be crawled through.  The flats have to be modified to make them work for you.  What we find as a solution today, might be superseded by another solution tomorrow, culminating in an ever changing living space.  Preliminary studies from Immunologists seem to confirm that this might be having a positive effect.

Allowing for the fact that not everything is set out for you when you move in, would you take on the challenges a flat of this kind offers to the occupier?  Let us know in the comment section at the end.