The Lovag habitation wants to ignore aesthetics towards passers-by as it is exclusively conceived for the use of the inhabitant and his guests.
 

"Everywhere were started neo-greek or neo-roman constructions which would bring Greeks or Romans to laugh, as had been forgotten origins, aptitudes of people, essential conditions for the society."

VIOLLET LE DUC
Histoire de l 'Habitation Humaine

 

 The partitions 


Anyhow, the lovagian construction is not simply functional: it is, everywhere, stamped by sentimental and sensorial touches, even if these are discreet.

Antti LOVAG refuses the confrontation of plane, vertical partitions and the agression of angles:he prefers the conjugation of flexible spaces conceived beforehand by simulation to an orthogonal drawing later destroyed. To the 2 dimension proportions of the standing human canon, he adds a third, the gesturality, and then a fourth, the moving around.

From this, the countless variety of possible layouts originated from standing or lying, straight or winding cylinders and pure or pulled spheres: this is at the opposite of classic façades.

The tried technics go from trimmed rock (core sampler or wire) to the use of internal shuttering (better start from the end to prevent dirtying, time-taking and difficult finishing operations), passing by :
frameworking on moulds then concreting for selfsupporting and antisismic shells, outstretched knitwear on inflatables, furniture... or arch + plaster or fibered concrete, the assembling and the surrounding of scales (sandwiches of insulation with fibered concrete) and evidently the polymers for opening modules.

New materials (or old ones reconsidered) and present implementing help the development
of selfconstructions easy for anyone, for trainees and "enlightened" amateurs, the recent reduction of working time being an encouragement.

 

 The openings 


The conviviality of curbs can be found in all openings to the exterior as well as between internal spaces.

The reception door is a large circular monocle. It is biconvex, translucent, tinted and protected by a large porch roof. During day-time, the sunlight goes through it and brings color in the hall; as night comes, an integrated electric light offers a warm signal.

The outside doors to terraces and private gardens are large panels of glass.

The internal doors are as few as possible. They are oval, biconvex and translucent, one shuts the toilets and sometimes another one gives access to private spaces.
Elsewhere, they become a complete arch, at the interpenetration of bubbles and they create a transparency peculiar to the author. The non-rectilinear alignment of bubbles/spaces implicate a sinuous progression (either on a flat level or not) which stimulates a certain curiosity as discoveries come and encourage progression. However proximity is never overcrowding.

The lovagian window questions on the shape, the place and the triple function of the traditional window.
The shape: the orthogonal frame and bars maltreat the image without necessity.
The implantation: the external alignings are opposite to the satisfaction of the optimal internal use.
The triple function (aeration - light - sight) may be better if dissociated.

The skydome is a round opening, pierced near the pole for light and, mainly, air...It can be found nice to see the sky from a bed... In the case of a mezzanine/hammock, one takes advantage from a direct vertical stream from a well above a target on the ground (table, nest) and lateral flows on partitions between the accroaches of the "hamack".
Variant : a pivoting cupola.

The "oculus" is a round opening small or medium. The opening is chosen from the interior near the utilisation place, standing near a sink, sitted at a desk, lying at the top of a bed... It is often protected by a tubular sighting tube targetted to the chosen object.
Variation :
> large enough, it can be "inhabited". Ex. : bathtub
> in association with a rotating window box.

The bay is a large round or horizontaly oval opening, often protected by a double eye lid. It is corresponding with relaxing spaces, living room or bedroom.

Separately, the skydome brings a zenithal light which modulates the concavity of the partition and progressively animates it during day time : aeration and celestial sight are possible at any moment;
the "oculus" enables a sight, chosen beforehand by simulation: the zoom effect reinforces the impact of the focalisation;
the bay and its large angle enables an immersion in a panoramic scenery .

Associated, the three opening types allow each a visual field quasi hemispherical which would not have been possible with aligned façades, either vertical, horizontal or oblique;
thanks to different openings in a same space, they balance sensations and feelings as strongly as the perturbation caused by a breathtaking diving (cliff under an opening) simultaneously to the appeasing coming from a familiar proximity ("cascatelle" targetted by an "oculus").

 

 

 

 The rigging


This term is used on purpose to recall the naval architecture formation followed by Antti Lovag and the essential role of the essential instrumentation of the living compared to navigating :

active participation, incorporation in hull, plurifunctionalism.

First a stranger to the french language then initiated to its arcanes, Antti Lovag is worried by the exact sense of the word FURNITURE. Then, as our furniture are not any more furniture, he wants to find their mobilization and, first, withdraw their feet which not only are useless, even to move them, but also largely interfere.

Such a questionning brings new conceptions :

> The FURNITURE furniture.
ex. : a table, a chimney...

> The FURNITURE / SPACE
It deploys for a moment and creates a new space which annexes the user.
ex. : a kitchenette.

> The SPACE / FURNITURE
The partition bends and/or proliferates in a storage place, a shelf, a desk, a working or a relaxing place.
e x. : a nest, a bathtub

> The SPACE furnished for a double use by moving the furniture.
ex. : a sitting/dining room.

> The SPACE furnished for a double use by mobilization of the floor.
ex. : an office/guest room.

> The SPACE furnished opening on site
ex. : a convertible shower.

> The SPACE furnished opening on the terrace
ex. : a meal-module and others.

> The SPACE furnished and opened.
A complete module (shell + furnished practicable) becomes a mobile pseudo-bower.
ex. : a migrant sitting/dining room.

Not only furnitures find again a mobility but also habitation spaces emigrate in the site and participate so to the complete notion of HOUSING.