Collectively - Living together
Description
Could living in smaller spaces with access to shared spaces and shared functions foster a sense of community and provide a viable option to the present housing crisis?
This diploma investigates how shared spaces, shared functions, and architectural qualities in small spaces might result in more affordable housing in the center of Oslo. By considering collective housing, you may establish a community while creating smaller apartments with access to bigger shared facilities.
The project consists of three buildings on a selected site in Gamle Oslo:
- The Co-house - a cooperative housing development where residents have access to shared spaces and functions while living in private accommodations.
- The Collective - a cooperative housing complex where four people share a cluster unit with a shared kitchen and living area, separate bedrooms, and bathrooms. All cluster units have access to project-wide common rooms and functions.
- The Community House - a small structure with a kitchenette and shared areas in the center of the block that serves as a gathering place for everyone living there.
The chosen site contains existing housing in the form of an open block. The new buildings add to this structure, closing the site off more, without eliminating the qualities of an open block, but still adding an additional sense of privacy, which is one of the problems on the block today.
In the Collective each floor consists of two cluster units and a shared program in the middle, these shared programs are laundry room, event space, study and hobby room.
In the Co-House shared program is mainly on the ground floor, but there are also shared winter gardens on the first to fourth floor.
Living smaller
Smaller spaces can be a solution to making housing more affordable. It is important that architectural qualities are kept, and with careful spatial design of smaller units, the same architectural qualities as of larger spaces can be achieved.
There are three apartment typologies in the Co-House:
- The Flat - 30 sqm, 1 bedroom
- Duplex 1 - 50 sqm, 1-2 bedrooms
- Duplex 2 - 80 sqm, 2-3 bedrooms