Press

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING.

Kristiano Ang, The Wall Street Journal, March 27th 2014

A New Plan for Blueprints

Paperhouses offers free building designs from brand-name architects; a courtyard that can be cut to size

[...] the impetus to set up Paperhouses stemmed from her frustration with how the industry treated middle-class homeowners. "You don't get to participate in the process of making your own house unless you're part of a very exclusive process, which is also very expensive," she says. "The market [serves] real-estate developers and not the needs of people."

To that end, though Paperhouses' design partners received complete creative freedom, they worked with the caveat that their designs had to cost less than $300,000 to construct. [...] 

SEA GLOBE Magazine. February Issue

Phil Stevens, designboom. Jan 27, 2014

despite its constant role in our day-to-day lives, architecture is still seen by many as a closed profession which remains out of touch with the lives of the general public. seeking to challenge these perceptions, paperhouses – founded by architect joana pacheco – is a scheme which makes contemporary residential architecture freely and readily available. the program aims to stimulate debate and encourage collaboration among designers, clients and builders.

Dintelo Magazine. January 2014.

Internet ha posibilitado el libre intercambio de información entre sus usuarios, y los arquitectos no iban a ser menos. La arquitectura de código abierto (Open Source Architecture) nos ofrece mucho más que diseños diseños de planos gratis.

December Issue. Pin-Up Magazine, Zac Rose

Sustainable, affordable and well-designed--it's the holy trinity of housing production in the 21st century. But usually achieving one means sacrificing another. Enter Paperhouses, an online clearing- house for free downloadable blue- prints of sustainable homes that has rallied design brains from Japan to Mexico in response to the global housing crisis.

December 7, 2013. Revista VD, El Mercurio, Cecilia de Frutos.

ARQUITECTURA AL ALCANCE - "La primera plataforma en codigo abierto que entrega arquitectura de clase mundial, gratis a todo el publico." Asi se define Paperhouses, un sitio web que se lanzo el 26 de Noviembre y que ofrece algo tan impensable como proyectos detallados de diferentes casas disenadas especialmente por diez excelentes arquitectos, y sin pedir nada a cambio.

AFFORDABLE ARCHITECTURE - "The first open source platform that delivers world-class architecture, free to the general public." So defined, Paperhouses, a website that was launched on November 26th, offers something as unthinkable as detailed plans of different homes specially designed by ten excellent architects, without asking anything in return.

December 6, 2013. Phoenix New Times, Katie Johnson.

If you're like us (and the 99.99 percent of the rest of the world), you've probably all but given up on the idea of living in a two story modular masterpiece built by Tatiana Bilbao or a light-infused, private sky structure by Florian Busch. But thanks to a new online architecture resource, your dream home doesn't have to be a dream at all.

December 5, 2013. WIRED Magazine, Liz Stinson

We’ve see open source architecture before [...] but what separates Paperhouses is the caliber of the designs included. “We’re trying to bring quality to open source,” Pacheco says. “Architects that you wouldn’t normally call on to do your house are suddenly are very much within your reach.”

November 27, 2013. ArchDaily, Vanessa Quirk

“Architecture does not change anything. It’s always on the side of the wealthy. The important thing is to believe that it can make life better.” — Oscar Niemeyer

As much as we’d care to deny it, Niemeyer makes a valid point here. Architecture is almost always “on the side of the wealthy." Tthe profession, as it has existed for about a century, rarely changes anything, and yet – and yet – it can make life better. If only for a select few.  But what if architecture could make life better for the many. What if good-quality, life-bettering architecture were open-source and available to download off the internet? For free? Well, thanks to Paperhouses, it already is.

November 14, 2013. Wallpaper* Magazine, Jonathan Bell

The dream of off-the-shelf housing never ceases to engage us. Historically, builders have long worked to standardised plans, buying pattern books and floor plans to speed up the process of getting things done. Well into the modern era, there's still a massive discrepancy between the number of bespoke, architect-designed homes and those designed with a set of bought-in blueprints.

Over the years, we've seen more than a few innovators tap into the distributing power of the internet and the simmering demand for bespoke homes. Paperhouses is the latest such venture, and this time the system has an even more contemporary approach: open source. For the house-builder the hook is compelling; the designs are entirely free, along with a directory of resources (suppliers, contractors, materials) to get your building started.