Who watches the watchmen? If they guards are working out of the Hydronaut, a semi-permanent housing system for security guards designed by Studiobird, keeping an eye on the surveillance state might take a back seat to admiring the streamlined design. This installation in Melbourne, Australia, isn't some wooden hut for a mall cop. With a design that mixes the streamlined shape of submarines and an array of aperture-like windows, the Hydronaut makes an environmental as well as aesthetic statement, repurposing waste PVC truck curtains, frames from discarded trampolines, old storage racks, and reused stud framing. Within the blue exterior lies 50 square meters (~540 square feet) of space, enough for two offices, a lunchroom, and an "open plan monitoring station." Because when one is keeping an eye on the surrounding shopping plaza, train station, and college quad, it's imperative to be in a unconstrained, creative environment.
· Previous Portable House posts [Curbed]
· Hydronaut / Studiobird + Mark Richardson [ArchDaily]