AFFORDABLE HOUSING
with Help USA
Affordable Housing
when
where
2019 . Spring
Help USA . Brooklyn . NY
Mershia Veledar, Hayley Eber,
Inaqui Carnicero
what
instructor
Affordable Housing
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There are many forms of households around different collectives. Yet it underlays a universal quality of space. Houses should embrace both comprehensive demand for spaces and varieties of different households. This studio researches households for low-income families.
Phase 1 _ song-pa micro housing analysis
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Composition of households constantly changes over periods. For instance, urbanization during the industrial revolution configured high-rise, high-dense buildings. Residential units accumulated vertically as apartments. These units were planned in consideration of four members composing one household.
Advancement of society now faces low-growth. In cities, where resources like residentials are concentrated, the pie of growth is getting smaller making an individual’s survival primary. This leads to a new configuration, a single household. Cities are now confronting with more demand for single housing.
Song-pa micro housing implies a shift in household formalities. Its significance lies in what the architect calls a ‘tapioca space’. Like the gel around a tapioca pearl, this ‘Tapioca Space’ becomes a soft intersection between public/private and interior/exterior, creating social fabrics between neighbors.
Fourteen ‘unit blocks’ allow residents to either claim a single space, or in the case of gatherings, blocks can be combined for larger configurations. This flexibility accommodates constant state of change and allows residents to occupy the building longer.
Phase 2 _ wet spaces and unit studies
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Wet spaces and unit compositions are issues for this phase. Its importance lies not only in minimizing the cost for construction but also in dealing with the overall composition of the entire housing complex.
Given to design a ‘single household with co-working space’ and a ‘household with children’ the dadami method was used in order to set the amount of footage necessary for each household. A unique method to break down each unit into basic components hence enabling off-site prefabrication.
Phase 3 _ affordable housing
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Time needed to build a generic colonial house has not been reduced since the 1900s. It is difficult to understand considering the advancement of tools and commodity retail networks. Assuming, reforming the labor market might have suggested a solution. Hence, pre-fabrication has become an alternative in the construction industry.
Pre- fabrication minimizes the labor force put into construction to cut the budget which leads to affordable housing. Furthermore, spaces for the public are exposed, minimizing the usage of materials.
The housing complex is a low-rise high dense building. Categorized with three types of household, more variations are given under its form. The complex holds independent buildings, each being clusters of multiple households. External circulation connects each cluster with sky bridges that share four vertical circulation cores.
The complex also has two buildings for public amenities. One with laundry facilities and a public kitchen, and the other a nursery. These facilities are useful for inhabitants who have kids but cannot take care of them during the day and for single households who don't use the kitchen regularly, but from time to time.
