Specialty: Housing Practice | Research: The Façade Manifesto

Specialty Housing Practice

Research leader Fernando Altozano

Completion time Seven months

Specialty approach

In the realm of housing discipline, our exploration embarked from a fundamental concept: the departure from individual “villas” proved unsustainable, steering us towards collective housing with a holistic approach founded on a “social commitment” ethos. The essence of the form and shape are derived both from external influences and internal considerations, respectively.

The crux of our inquiry centred on the development of housing knowledge. How is such knowledge conceived? What defines quality in this context? Our journey prompted us to ponder the transition from clues to concrete ideas and the quantification of historical knowledge. We grappled with the challenge of incorporating new ideas, topics, and concepts into our existing mental map.

Research

Our approach involved the systematic analysis of each housing example as intricate systems. The process began with the professor assigning 30 collective housing buildings, complemented by an additional 20 examples proposed by each participant. The overarching objective was to construct a novel framework for analyzing collective housing systems, with a pronounced emphasis on metaphors and narratives.

Keywords like “map,” “matrix,” “catalogue,” “galaxy,” and “structure” resonated as we delved into this intellectual exercise, aiming to craft a fresh perspective on collective housing that transcended traditional boundaries and opened up new avenues of understanding.