The Smithsons’ Unbuilt Projects: Considerations on the Retirement House Approach

Abstract: The Retirement House (1959) was a project developed by Peter Smithson that did not have the opportunity to be materialized beyond the drawing; therefore, we will use this proposal as a case study to investigate deeper into his design themes. Two texts will be considered, “The nature of home: it’s equipment and furniture” and “Container and Contained”, presented, respectively, in the publications “Ordinariness and Light” and “Alison and Peter Smithson—from the House of Future to a house of today”, as a “guide” for an interpretation of the project. The Retirement House, recognised as being set within their Appliance Houses research, is charged through the different influences and cultural references that inhabit the Smithsons’ oeuvre in the 50s. As a main objective, we intend to show in more detail the inception and design themes of the case study through the analysis of installations, texts and other projects that serve as an experimental legacy. We intend to demonstrate the functional character and interconnection of spaces present in the work of Alison and Peter Smithson that form an operative design tool, set within the capacity of a topological variation that can imprint a flexibility value, with pronounced interest in contemporary architecture and the current housing crises. The present article is part of ongoing PhD research on Alison and Peter Smithson’s work.