As most newly married couples may attest, there’s no easy way to talk about the possibility of signing a prenuptial agreement — no matter how “right” the decision might be. While a simple signature on a stack of legal documents helps could-be exes divvy up their fair shares of an estate, a recent concept designed by Studio OBA blows conventional prenups out of the water in terms of controversy. Dubbed Prenuptial Housing, Studio OBA’s concept is a floating home that boasts the incredibly odd trait of splitting into two homes in the event of a couple’s divorce. Should a wedded couple decide to ice their marriage, a simple flip of a switch allows them to drift away with their half of the home.
Conceptualized by Dutch entrepreneur Omar Kbiri, the idea came about while he was shopping for a new home with his girlfriend. The unfortunate statistic of rising divorce rates came to Kbiri as a sort of “aha” moment, and it was then that he wondered how he could design a home that featured the ability to be split up in the event of a, well, split. To help bring the idea to life, Kbiri enlisted the help of Studio OBA to officially design the unique abode.
“With the increasing number of divorces each year, our concept is — regrettably — becoming more and more relevant,” Kbiri told the Daily Mail. “I especially like that we can stabilize the homefront during an otherwise very hectic time. With this concept, you namely don’t need to relocate after a breakup.”
Culling inspiration from Amsterdam and its bevy of floating structures, Studio OBA knew the floating model was the best way to pull of the initial concept. Once built and functional, Prenuptial Housing units are comprised of two separate prefabricated structures fused together via a connection mechanism. In the event of a divorce or split, the couple would simply disengage this mechanism and would then be on their individual ways. Thing is, this innovative connection device isn’t entirely fleshed out as of yet.
“The units should disconnect without much effort. Though, this is part of the design that is still under development,” Kbiri continued before elaborating more on the overall design of the home. “The units are initially prefabricated as independent carbon fiber units for which we designed a simple solid connecting system; detaching this system means unlocking the connection and requires no unique tools.”
As of now, Studio OBA and Kbiri are aiming to debut Prenuptial Housing across European countries with unusually high divorce rates — Portugal, Hungary, and Belgium. While Kbiri is currently looking for a group of investors to help fund the project, Studio OBA says it hopes to have a functional working prototype built soon, and has its sights set on starting pre-orders in early 2017.
