activating [sub]URBAN housing

activating

[sub]URBAN housing flexible live-work networks

RIBA/WATES Housing for the Private Rental Market Competition, UK, Runner Up Nov ’13.

act LA B

Introduction

01 issue

Designed for the nuclear family

The proposal intends to develop a new dwelling typology that responds to the way in which people’s spatial and social needs change through the course of time -- that is Architectonically, Economically and Socially viable as a model for redefining suburban housing typololgy.

But only

16% conform to the traditional family

act LA B

The Static suburban housing typology designed for the nuclear family and ill-fitted to the actual demographic and complex family structures it is now intended to serve. The current stock, faces the issue of dis-investment. The detachment of the residential program from economic and social life did not deliver the promise of suburban “life�.

02 limitations

CAFE

Surbubs London

HOME

Surbubs

Self-Employed + Home workers [who work in the midst of domestic clutter] are the fastest growing part of the workforce

WORK

London

SHOPPING Surbubs London

the current suburban commuter system is unsuitable to the way we live, work and communicate.

act LA B

people’s spatial and social needs change through the course of time.

A person on average moves 8 times in his life, and each move corresponds to a different housing typology based on the person’s spatial, economic and social situation. Housing needs to be as dynamic as our modern family structures.

It needs to cater for the increasing amount of people who decide to live alone, not have children and the ageing -- as well as those who choose to share a home in bigger groups.

03 proposal

the [ introverted ] housing type

act LA B

public

private

house

apartment

suburban house

identify program

detach circulation

fragment program

re-configure into new types

taking circulation out of the private limits of the home as the device to change typology: FRAGMENTING THE HOUSE INTO PARTS based on the publicness and privateness of its program. Two strategies to reconfigure the housing type into house and apartment: 1. Taking the circulation out of the house and making this public with a separate entry and used this as a threshold between units.

2. The addition of live-work TYPE of unit -- a self-contained studio that would be placed at ground floor / frontage of each residential building.

04 typology

4. Private

3. Public

2. Circulation

1. Live-Work

the house conceived as Part of a Whole

act LA B

4. Rooms

3. Utility

2. Circulation

the apartment “unit”conceived as an Assembly of Parts 1. Live-Work

05 reworking program

4. Private

50m2

bed + bath + storage

3. Public

dining + kitchen + living

65m2

2. Circulation

8m2

stairs + hallway + entry

1. Live-Work

stairs + hallway + entry

30m2

self-contained studio

Part

House

4 bedroom unit + live-work unit

the live-work type as the new program to activate the housing system

CLUSTER

3 house cluster

the “house” re-configured creates diverse spatial qualities and relationships between indoor and outdoor The house is conceived as parts of a whole.

3 live-work studio/ granny flats on the ground level, 5 circulation modules, 3 large “public parts” and 11 bedrooms -one cluster yielding 11 bedspaces.

act LA B

4. Private

bed + storage

3. Utililty

kitchen + bathroom

2. Circulation

stairs + hallway + entry

1. Live-Work

self-contained studio

Part

the live-work type to activate the ground

Apartment

2 bedroom unit + live-work unit

Cluster

10 apartment unit

the “unit�re-configured creates diverse spatial qualities and relationships between indoor and outdoor An assembly of parts strategically distributed to allow for diverse configurations.

In one apartment, there are 6 live-work

studios/ self contained units on the ground, a network of 10 circulation

modules, 6 Utility rooms (wet areas), and 10 modules comprising of living rooms and bedrooms.

06 expansion STAIRS STAIRS

TERRACE TERRACE

stairs

terrace

SLIDING WALL SLIDING WALL

Circulation as the threshold between parts of the system

fire-rated sliding door

making Circulation Flexible is the device to achieve overall flexibility -PUBLIC when separating two “UNITS” or PRIVATE when combining two. Each circulation connecting / separating at least 2 units.

act LA B

With this system, Dwelling units within each cluster are able to aggregate -- physically (through a network of Flexible Circulation) and moveable walls to form larger units.

In re-thinking the way in which we perceive the boundary of a house -- different configurations are determined by current demands and this creates diversity in the stocks itself [ as units are able to combine with adjacent parts through a network of circulation in shared between PARTS].

07 flexibility Expansion Area with separate entrance

Expansion Area with separate entrance

Live-Work Unit

Heterogenous living environment with optimum arrangement for open space and light

The glazed circulation clearly separates and connectes different parts of the house..

The LIVE WORK STUDIO on the ground floor facing the green space.

This house can be divided into two homes -- linked by a terrace.. gaps between are used as parking garages.

act LA B Expansion Area with separate entrance

Self-contained studios

Gaps created by the pixelated arrangement of the plan allow for interesting in between spaces for social activity, planting and most especially LIGHT

Live-Work Units

Expansion Area

08 in-between space

The ground floor of both Housing clusters and apartments all are designed in a disperesed arrangement that allow for more private in between spaces that can be negotiated between units. These

shared spaces are activated by the live- work and self-contained studios... A condusive place for children to play with collective supervision.

in-between spaces become are the physical social networks that ACTIVATE the community.

The

act LA B

09 eco-system The vision for the proposal is an Active Community with interweaving networks of dwelling types and economic, social and green spaces. The planning of the commuity begins with the primary circulation that connects to other communities. The site is zoned... with community facilities closest to the primary circulation, walkways that lead to the center of housing clusters.

Apartments and Houses are organized in clusters With Commercial activity along pedestrian walkways. And a variety of livework dwellings and self-contained studios are distributed on the site. -- to induce an economic ecosystem and self-sufficiency of the community ---> All programed on the ground floor to activate pathways.

the Secondary Street activated by live-work dwellings

01

02

03

04

05

06

act LA B

the Active Community with multiple pockets of social space and garden

01 Secondary Ciculation for pedestrian activity & connecting the clusters

04 Dwellings are distributed along pedestrian walkways negotiating porous ground

02 Intense public activity along Primary Circulation

05 Distributed green pockets + new program on the ground create a new social physical network

03 Commercial Activity line the main circulation

06 Live-Work units and Self-Contained studios activate the ground

10 social

a non-static ecosystem that negotiates the spatial growth of units & networks of communal space

act LA B

Suburban Housing : architectonic economic

social

[ flexible housing typology allowing for diverse housing arrangements ]

[ ecnomic ecosystem activated by new live-work homes ]

[ active physical and social networks | long-term occupation = place-making ]

Š2014 actLAB actlabnyc.com