EXPLORING ORIENTATION

In the book by Inaki Abalos –‘A good life’ he talks about the pragmatic house that is hypothetically inhabited by a family – or any of its now widely differing variations4 – with a reduced composition is of two generations at most, with the roles traditionally assigned to the figures of father, mother, son/daughter being relatively toned down, mainly to the profit of an increased respect for individuality. If we combine this with the new lifestyle of working and living together tends to create a sense of loneliness if the residents are not provided with spatial opportunities where they can come together and socialize. The building of a community is as important as having privacy and a sense of individuality.

This morphological exploration brings in an opportunity to make the most of the north-east/south-west orientation by organising and layering the shared approaches to food preparations to the north and the living spaces to the south. By employing the method of manipulation of the angle of a plane that is habitable, the typical floors tilt in plan, creating an incline that shifts the vision as we shift from the collective to the individual units.

The structure works in such a way that it allows for the larger, civic spaces on the ground to occupy spaces at a right angle, simplifying the circulation and enabling multiple scales of volumes within. The structure braids through the typical floor, using the ground as a foundation and resting the inclined planes in a way that it superimposes the base structure. It is through this structural innovation that the building can hold a variety of spatial configurations as well as embrace a more dense approach to the south-west while bringing in the civic realm to the north east. This also creates a hierarchy of corridors. One that is more collective and open to chance meetings and interaction, and one which nurtures the privacy and individuality of the unit.

2.1.1

Addressing questions of privacy, transparency, hierarchy

The organization employs the concept of a ‘hole’ where a series of penetrations run through the slab, creating a void that distributes the floor space on either side. This creates a scope for conceiving a collective environment for preparation and storage of food, bringing learning practices as a part of a collaborative shared economy. The collective kitchens take up a smaller area than the livable spaces, permitting more porosity towards the north east. The void nurtures visual exchange and spatial continuity among floors. Acting on an otherwise multi-level stacked section, this manifestation of a void establishes clear hierarchy of spaces, simplifying the construction system. The scale influences the importance of transparency while the incline adds the layer of privacy between the formal and informal spaces. The fenestration can be explored as something that allows filtration and insulation for both noise and vision. A thickened façade can bring the collective out to the city while allowing transparency and privacy at the same time.

Section / type : Hole

Indeterminacy as a tool

Another way of organization is by employing the concept of indeterminacy. The accuracy of a single result has turned into a probability that several events occur at the same time. This has led to a shift in our worldview with indeterminacy now controlling events.

By using architecture as a framework of creating events as a part of everyday experience, this type makes the ground porous, nesting volumes within itself and creating a new culinary ecology. One that brings back the local resources into the building and has the ability to act as an extension of the vibrant environment under the arches. It harbours a space that can change its character at different times of the day and nurtures indeterminacy through a consistency of grid and regularity as we go higher up. The 4m grid accommodates a variety of units, for both individuals and families, by allowing a congregation of connected parts with a corridor that bleeds into the units, creating intermediate collective spaces. It uses the spatial strategies of staggering and shearing so that a diagonal relationship is achieved within, allowing more air and light in the interiors.

a series of rooms - freedom of space through a 4m permeable ground, offering a culinary atrium

Event as a part of everyday life –through nesting

By introducing an element that creates sectional consequences through an overlap of nesting volumes, the linear slab building portrays a quality of absorbing a deep floorplate while activating the ground realm by developing a rhythm of spaces that become events in the everyday life of the residents as well as integrating the events taking place at different times of the day underneath the viaduct. The event spaces need not always mean a congregation of large numbers of people or a gathering for a performance, but what is more crucial to our new housing methods is to be able to create spaces that enable the possibility of an event on a daily basis, in a person’s regular mundane life.

The multi-scalar nested volumes become a part of a sequence of vertical staggering, playing with density while resting on a simplified grid. This not only cultivates a possibility of a new lifestyle and urbanity but extends the domesticity outside the four walls and brings the life of the street into the building. The event spaces built out of a new local approach to conceiving our culinary demands open an opportunity of restructured services. It breaks the idea of the traditional high street and instead, embeds the quality of shared services within the built environment.

The typical floors inhabit a range of collective spaces while the indeterminacy through connectivity of rooms give rise to volumes that can be altered in the future. The linear morphology thus proves that it can accommodate permeability, distribute the services better and allow integration through layering of the local industries thriving underneath the viaduct.

embracing the everyday events and extending the celebratory life under the arches to the housing estate

Continuity and Grouping - through hole + shear

If we think of technology as the driving factor, and the condition of having a railway viaduct that offers a freedom of light and air on top, a new type of service integrated housing can be thought of. One in which the total absence of services allows for utilizing the full depth of the floorplate, with spaces that can benefit from double aspects and allow more freedom of organization. This also explores the kitchen-less type after 18 meters, allowing more density and the opportunity to go higher without any fire hazard. At the 18m level, the floor turns into a hub of shared services, expanding the domesticity and allowing transportation of food through dumb waiters. This idea carefully utilizes the fire-restrictions by positioning the homes without a kitchen on the higher floors, that pose no fire hazard.

Inspired from the concepts of Katharine Beechers Co-operative housekeeping5, it liberates the home by organizing a cooperative association to perform all the domestic work collectively. This is also explored in the works and philosophy of Anna Puigjaner, where the Spanish architect imagined a future with a kitchen-less housing typology6. The elderly populations face a lack of socialization outlets and with the increasing prices of real estate, the loneliness in people is creating a demand of new models of collective housing. This leads to the proposition of a system that brings together all the types in the form of a structural system that explores shearing of spaces vertically. The concept creating a platform of shared services addresses multiple aspects, such as nurturing a sense of community, sustainability, and collaborative economy.

An early photo from the late 1890s helps us understand a change in the way the internal layout of the kitchen was laid, as it was then that the Niagara Stove Co Stove was set against a wall with the pipe going upwards along with it. This is indicative of the idea that a space like this which was closely related to services was laid against the wall. Keeping the rest of the floor free. The set-up was a very compact one, focused on the only act of cooking and minimal storage, almost a state of minimalism as mentioned by Mies when he talks about ‘existenzminimum’,7 which is based on the optimization of standardized dwelling types for working class families.

Co-operative housekeeping strategies –Liberation of services

There was a major breakthrough in the domestic organization of the home when groups of 12-50 women came together to organize cooperative associations that would perform all their domestic work collectively.8 By monetizing these ventures with membership fees groups like these would purchase a building to serve as its headquarters. The building was further furnished, keeping in mind the requirements of the appropriate mechanical equipment for all the domestic chores. This included cooking, baking, laundry and sewing.

This also came with a cooperative store with provisions. By utilizing smart ways of delivering food within the building, the floors were designed in such a way that the walls were movable, allowing a freedom of extension of space according to different tiems of the day. Pierce, inspired from Catharine Beecher, argued all those years ago, that architects should make simplified houses without kitchens. The houses, instead of being built around a square, could be set in the middle of it.

If we were to take this a step ahead, we could create a new type that did exactly this, in the context of a post-pandemic world that demands so much more from our housing. It makes more sense to collectivize the daily chores through a system that governs the housing, making it a process that is more participatory and de-centralized. Through the liberation of services in the depth of the floorplate, we allow more freedom in occupation of spaces and an opportunity to make the most of the orientation and vertical shear in the units. The core becomes a hub of not only the vertical circulation, but also functions that otherwise take up a sizeable space. Instead, the open plan encourages the diagonal relationship within the plan and harbors a creative space within.

the liberation of services from the floor - allows the utiliza- modulation in fenestration and height , orientation as a tool