Is Hometta political?
To some extent that's an unanswerable question, since as a collective, we don't dictate the motives of our participants. But in our new podcast, Ana Miljacki and Lee Moreau, principals of the firm Project_, describe what many Hometta participants see as their reason for joining us: to support Hometta as a "channel for the dissemination and democratization of design, which is incredibly important," according to Lee.
An outtake from our interview with Ana and Lee.
The husband-and-wife team has always had the "ambition of rattling the cage," according to Lee, and with Stanley and Oliver, they hope to rattle the particular cage of mass-market builder housing. What was originally designed as a site specific project, said Ana, takes on "political urgency" when it's made available to a wider section of homeowners, expanding options and access to good design.
"We have to take on activisim as one of the cores of our practice," she added.
A matched set of architects.
"A very small percentage of residential houses are produced thoughtfully," said Ana. By joining Hometta, Project_ feels they're "allowing for better, thoughtful design to proliferate on the same scale that developers are able to tap into, while also allowing clients to feel like they are in control of the process."
For more on Project_, Hometta, and the future of residential housing, check out this piece from the Boston Globe.