UNIT 6 Just Do It
Isaie Bloch, Jakub Klaska
The Residential typology has become the most lucrative product to build by private developers due to a continuous increase in demand, in a city where land ownership is very centralised. In London itself where Unit6 will be operating this year, 200k buyers every year remain unsatisfied as they are unable to purchase a home due to a lack of quality and affordable residential properties. This trend has unfortunately created a very robust mass of buyers which are causing a dramatic housing price increase. As property prices are as well no longer in any conjunction with the actual value of the built structure; we Unit6, will aim to find more sustainable and alternative routes for the production of residential typologies. In order to do so we will promote and combine two rather continental European building concepts which have yet to find their way into the UK market. Being Self-built & Co-Housing strategies. We will re-invest in the actual value of the built property by focussing on intelligent tectonics in direct relation with their fabrication logic. investigating a model for designer led construction. Through both digital and traditional construction methods we will engage with the construction logics and turn them into clear design drivers. We will aim to develop a more relevant model for co-housing in which designer and other inhabitants of the schemes, become both contractor as well as construction managers. This system would not only allow the architect to redeem his role as an entrepreneurial creative, but would simultaneously contribute to transfer of skills and knowledge in an age
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
where education becomes unaffordable. The territory for our investigations and deployments this year will be across London. Where we selected a number of neglected sites which have not been touched by corporate real estate development. Through an in depth engagement with digital form finding, appropriate fabrication methods and innovative organisational logics we will aim to deliver spatially ambitious well-crafted propositions which will elevate the standard of living in this metropolis. Piece by Piece! We will sequence the design process through a number of defined milestones as to gradually build up the complexity of the proposals. Supported by our own research and skill sets as well as those of invited guest lecturers, we will be particularly focussing on tectonic qualities and performative objectives in direct relationship with communal living scenarios.
