Diversity

How can diversity be facilitated through architecture? Is it the provision of different typologies? Access strategies? Circulation? Spatial experiences?

Housing in Ceuta

Plan and Elevation

Actar (1994)

Kleinwohnung

Carl Fieger (1931)

Circulation, Layout, Spatial Planning

Housing in Ceuta achieved flexibility and mass customisable units by distilling the functional units of the home into storage, kitchen, and bathroom. Each unit is then defined by the placement of these three elements. I love the way that the overall unit size and access is defined, yet variation of the elements gives rise to a musical score-like pattern. The two units can also be divided into a large unit and a small unit.

Kleinwohnung introduces flexibility through the sliding and folding partitions as well as fold-up beds which allow for the unit to have a daytime and night-time configuration. The wet areas are set spaces while the spacious living/dining/study areas can contract at night into two bedrooms.

Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation also utilises sliding doors, which allow the two children's bedrooms to connect into a larger play area. The double height living space with the window of the recessed second floor master bedroom enables closure of curtains for privacy but also light entrance and views to the living space. I also like how the units are interlocking: same level entrance but one unit takes the entire length of the floor above while the other takes the floor below.

Housing in Ceuta

Unit Plans

Actar (1994)

Unité d’Habitation

Le Corbusier (1952)

Infrastructures for Sustainable Living: Modes of Housing

Christina Gamboa

La Borda

Lacol (2018)

The W House Section showing courtyard space

Christina Gamboa’s lecture about La Borda housing and the idea of cooperative in Barcelona raises many interesting points regarding design strategies and project management, some of which include the reconsideration of “daily practice as a tool for radical transformations”, the material and structural system selection/decision process, and the power of flexible housing in establishing resilience.

Reflecting upon my W House project, I enabled spatial flexibility not through moveable wall panels like in La Borda, but through a 180-degree swing door (highlighted by dashed circle in image below). The door can connect the first and second floor into one residence or divide them into two independent residences by creating a separate entry point.

The courtyard is another device I used as the communal linkage between two spaces, while permitting passive solar gain in winter to the living spaces. This courtyard shown in the section functions much like the courtyard space in La Borda, albeit open. However, the two projects are very different in scale and project management. The W House was designed with an imaginative clientele while La Borda is designed with a bottom-up approach and in constant collaboration with the users.

Spatial Adaptation of the

W House across Three Centuries

Collaborative Housing

Dr. Darinka Czischke

Designing Interwoven at the human scale with YIRPs

Dr Czischke’s talk highlighted the re-emergence of collaborative housing and foregrounded a different working relationship between architects and residents in the design process – with residents as active agents rather than passive beneficiaries.

If I applied the process of collaborative housing and co-design to my neighbourhood precinct project for Carlton, it would have involved long-term planning, frequent workshops and meetings with the residents, and much back and forth communication. As I was designing a co-working space, shared bike storage, and a green native corridor, opinions and preferences of the residents would provide tangible information of how much they wish to share as well as eliminate assumptions on my part. Residents may prefer more communal spaces, a stronger connection to McArthur Square and raise issues of noise. Hence this could potentially result in smaller housing typologies and the re-orientation of the green corridor to run NS rather than EW in the final design for furthered engagement with the laneway and park.

Project 2 of Epsilon encouraged involvement of YIRPS (your imaginary resident profile) in the designing process of Interwoven, which enriched and grounded the design in the human experience.

Interconnection Plan

Green corridor

Building Materials, Construction Systems, and Formal Considerations

Verena von Beckerath

IBeB glass bricks

Heide & von Beckerath (2018)

Mycelium bricks as facade for Greenhouse Typology (Interwoven)

Materiality is an important part of my design as it has certain tactile, visual qualities that influence the experience of the architecture. It has inspired me to be quite playful in my façade treatments, such as in the W House where I deliberately showed the staircase via bricks on the facade, and in the Liminal Library project where I applied the bluestone pattern across the building at different scales and in different materials. Verena von Beckerath uses square glass bricks of the gallery to let light through to spaces below and I particularly enjoy the three-dimensional glazed tiles on the building façade that reflect the sunlight differently at various times of the day. These simple gestures add so much richness and delight to the otherwise plain concrete surfaces.

In terms of form, I have been interested in the counterpoint between a light canopy and a heavy base (formalised by Jorn Utzon in his exploration of Chinese Architecture) as well as the gentle curves of Alvar Aalto. This aspect is explored in the W-House and the Liminal Library, particularly evident in the sections with a curvaceous roofline and a masonry or precast concrete body.

I particularly love the large corridor connection between the rooms and the outside in their Wunschaus project, where the private bedrooms can be opened to the circulation corridor to form a larger space.

In my Interwoven project, I designed a customisable, three dimensional facade made from mycelium bricks placed on a wire frame. Unlike the shiny bricks in IBeb, mycelium bricks have an earthy tone and a rough texture, and can be entangled with vines over time.

IBeB facade bricks

Heide & von Beckerath (2018)

Kitchen Stories

Anna Puigjaner

Research notes on Japanese minka typology

Sharing within the domestic sphere is not a contemporary concept but can be seen in traditional typologies such as the Senegalese typology presented in Anna Puigjaner’s Kitchen Stories, where rooms surround a central patio which is a shared cooking space. The kitchen becomes the centre of the homestead and a linking device between members of the community.

In my group work research, we found that traditional indoor-outdoor relationship of vernacular dwellings varies across cultures. The edges of Japanese minka are visually connected to the garden via engawas; the English longhouse has thick wattle and daub walls punctured with small windows that let in light and views from outside; Zambian homesteads are made up of separate small structures where people essentially live outdoors; comparatively the Iranian mudbrick houses frame central courtyards. These edge conditions informed my project in terms of the degree of indoor and outdoor connection.

I was particularly intrigued by the parallels that can be drawn between Japanese engawas and Australian porches, as well as putting a twist on the courtyard typology as a shared space between households, which I explored in the Greenhouse typology. The possibility of having dwellings separate to the service areas and open to the surrounding environment in Zambian vernacular homesteads further inspired the Pergola typology, which emphasises living outdoors and sharing services.

Sketch exploring ideas of sharing between households

Designing diversity in typologies

Pushing the possibility of housing typologies

Reference List

Heide & von Beckerath. (2018). IBeB. Heide & von Beckerath. https://heidevonbeckerath.com/single/ibeb
Lacol. (2018). Cooperativa d'habitatge La Borda. Lacol. http://www.lacol.coop/projectes/laborda/
Heckmann, O., Schneider, F., & Zapel, E. (2018). Floor plan manual - housing. Basel: Birkhäuser.
Schneider, T., & Till, J. (2007). Flexible housing. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Architectural