Read on Twitter
This week we're reminded that #housing in Ireland is spatially conservative + out of date with our imaginations +social ambitions. What is being discussed are, at the end of the day, unsatisfactory typologies +ways of living for.
1/
1/
We still outcast the elderly + students. IN SILOS. We build small 1-bed apartments + denigrate them “starter homes” - people could live there for life. When “family homes” is said over +over people mean 3bed semi with a garden. #Coliving proposals are just small awful.
2/
2/
Who funds housing + who affords it are *serious* issues , but *affording* housing that you outgrow quickly is a waste of money. Affording housing that forces commuting is a waste of money #WFH Affording housing that fails to support care between neighbours is a waste of money.
3/
3/
There are other ways, many ways, no single way to design housing. BUT here is one example I have visited of complex #cohousing which at its core puts human beings at its heart and attempts to CARE for and CATER for people at all stages of their lives. Kalkbreite, Zurich.
4/
4/
Living, working and culture are combined - not taken apart. 250 residents, 82 apartments of different types. There are spaces to use for work, a laundry, a shared entrance hall and library, playgrounds, gardens at many levels for use by all residents.
5/
5/
The variety of apartment types and living strategies COMBINES rather than ISOLATES individuals. Older people, students, workers, families, single people, can all find spaces to live here. In the drawings you see the range.
6/
6/
There are rooms to “borrow” (joker rooms) suitable for when your friends or your mother visits. There are work rooms to rent. There is SPARE ROOM built in to the whole design - it is considered for life.
7/
7/
They have CLUSTERS- this word is used in Ireland about #coliving. Same idea - studio rooms with other shared spaces in the building BUT these are 38sqm and bright, airy, spacious. Laid out on social, wide, colourful corridors + PLACED beside other residents, not siloed.
8/
8/
There is a canteen, a place to eat together inside and out, places to use temporarily, and a place to put notes to share and exchange unwanted items and goods, help with shopping etc. There is storage, bike rooms, easy access to shops, transport, public realm, sharing...
9/
9/
This is culturally specific+site specific #housing. The model is harder to transpose to home-ownership focused countries / land / cost etc. But the principles are worth examining. He also points out that a crisis promotes change + new thinking.
Is there a #design crisis too?
10/
Is there a #design crisis too?
10/
