Y1 Unit 4

from Architecture: University of Greenwich School of Design, Show 2021

by University of Greenwich School of Design

BA (Hons) ARCHITECTURE

BA (HONS) ARCHITECTURE YEAR 1

Y1 UNIT 4: House. The New Metric.

MARTIN SAGAR + JEN WAN

Students: Ryan Brown, Sefora Cirdei, Luiz Fernando Fernandez Ortiz, Sophie Holt, Limor Joel, Todor Kosev, Mahmoud Maghraby, Abel Ndombasi, Marie Nilsen, Arlinda Prebiba, Gus Richards, Karolina Saulyte, Vietanh Trieu, Darcie Willis.

Special thanks to our guest critics: Kenzaf Chung, Larissa Johnston and Eva Vatzeva.

SINCE THE early 18th Century through to the present day the London Terraced house and subsequent modifications have served as a very flexible model, allowing these urban building blocks to adapt to rapidly changing demographic and social circumstances. London’s success has always been directly linked to its social success and its social success has always been linked to the ingenuity of the London Terraced house, be it a house or a complex collection of house, shop and small business.

London has survived more than one epidemic in its history. The significance of the one we are currently enduring is that it has had a profound effect on the otherwise pampered sociability of its communities. Social distancing is contrary to the very things which brought most of us to the Capital in the first instance.

The size of modern London houses are dictated by a complex set of documents that carefully describe the size of rooms and means of access for a wide range of house types, by which they mean the number of bedrooms. It appears at first sight that the flexibility of the London terrace to become or contain a shop, a pub, a restaurant etc has been diminished.

Given that our new metric is a scientifically presented separation distance of 1.5 metres, allied to home working and schooling, how do we simultaneously accommodate these new worlds within a single house? How does this drive the design of a new model for the London house?

Instigated by the questions posed, the unit were given two site options along/off Greenwich High Street, to design a private house intersected with a public programme.