Single-Family Homes Aren't Just for Nuclear Families

Inside the “Mommune,” designed by Besler & Sons.

The single-family home is an object of veneration in the US, its form cemented in place by building and zoning codes, not to mention homeowners’ associations and neighborhood committees. But those homes, and those regulations, have not kept pace with the changing demographics of American households. An exhibit in Brooklyn proposes some radical — and currently illegal — new versions of home, from a collapsible plan for the empty nester to an expansive compound for multiple generations.

The House Transformed, which debuted at Princeton University School of Architecture last fall, opened at Van Alen Institute’s Brooklyn headquarters in February. There, visitors can page through plans and descriptions of the exhibition’s 44 projects, examine detailed models on tables and shelves and view more artistic drawings on the walls.

“Households come in many shapes, and yet, architecture has continued to insist on one-size-fits-all,” write curators Monica Ponce de Leon, Shoshana Torn and Massimo Giannone in their introduction. “Neutrality has proven to be exclusionary and has not served us well.”