Home Economics

For the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, curator Alejandro Aravena set the theme, Reporting from the Front. Home Economics, the British Council's exhibition at the British Pavilion, responded by tackling the front line of British architecture today: the home.

Home Economics proposes five new models for living, through five periods of time: Hours, Days, Months, Years and Decades.

The curators, Shumi Bose, Jack Self and Finn Williams invited artists, architects and designers to produce five immersive rooms which challenge the status quo of the home.

Over the last decades our patterns of life have changed profoundly: family structures, gender roles, rising wealth inequality, mass migration and an ageing population. New technologies have displaced how, where and when we work, while prompting questions about surveillance and privacy in the home.

Home Economics was opened in May 2016 by Sandi Toksvig, comedian and co-founder of the Women's Equality Party. We welcomed over 145,000 people into the pavilion that year.

Gain insight into the ideas behind the exhibition and explore the lives of five people pioneering new ways of living in our five films, created in partnership with the Guardian.

Take an audio tour of Home Economics with Will Self as you continue your journey through the exhibition below:

You’re constantly on the move, from city to city around the world. It doesn’t matter where you are, you can always climb inside your inflatable retreat whenever you need – this is your portable and personalised space.

To feel at home here you only need a wi-fi connection, which you use to flit between your social media feeds, entertainment and virtual and commercial consumption.

Now this personalised inflatable sphere offers a new type of space that responds to your global mobility and is just as unique as you. No two are the same.

- åyr on Days for Home Economics

When you first heard your new home was modelled on a boarding house you had doubts... but after living here for a few months you can’t imagine a better form of life.

Everything you need is provided – your personal two-storey totem contains your private spaces for sleeping, washing and preparing food. The open-plan areas between you and your neighbours are shared, and you spend the days here working and socialising.

You feel liberated in your totem: you don’t need to buy furniture, sign up for utilities or get internet installed. It’s all as easy as booking a room. Most of all, there is no housework as it's all included in your rent. This home makes all that labour history.

- Dogma & Black Square on Months for Home Economics

When looking to buy a new home, you suspected you were being taken for a ride. The tacky countertops, ugly lights and built-in ovens – the finishes and fittings were so expensive, and not at all your style. That’s where the developers make most of their money, and you simply refused to pay.

Your home is designed from the bank’s perspective, stripping out every cost not required by your mortgage. It’s called “shell” construction – just a roof over your head, running water, electricity, a toilet and basin. Nothing else. Not even a kitchen sink!

Some people thought it looked bare, but you saw a blank canvas. You saved a lot of money and, over time, created a space that reflects the way you choose to live.

- Julia King on Years for Home Economics

Your home is functionless, but that’s not a bad thing. Instead of cramming everything into the smallest area possible, it is designed to provide you with generous, adaptable, useful spaces. You occupy two spaces – one inside the structural core and one outside it.

There are no predetermined rooms with predetermined activities – no 'kitchens' or 'bedrooms' or 'bathrooms'. Your home has a diverse range of spaces that suggest different activities.

Your square bed captures the essence of your home: it doesn’t dictate which way you should sleep, or even how many people can rest here together.

Over the decades your life has changed from youth to old age and from singleton to parent, but your home has always accommodated your needs.

- Hesselbrand on Decades for Home Economics