The studio is structured around two main exercises with a desire to explore new patterns of domesticity and where students review the preset relations in home spaces, question the standard established living patterns and venture into new spatial explorations. At the studio’s core is a research on seminal project and their theories as a way to inform the design proposals.
Exercise 1 tackles the design of a room/space limited within a 9x9x9m cubic volume for two personas. A unique narrative is derived from the reflection on the personal territories of each of the two characters with the possible moments of invasions and occupations; the design playfully manipulates the time and space of proximity versus distancing between the personas resulting in innovative proposals of permeability versus inflexibility in spatial relations.
Exercise 2 aims to find a new view on collective forms of domestic living and the design of their architectural containers; the latter is essentially driven by the site specific conditions and relations to the context of the neighborhood of Karm el Zeitoun. The investigation uncovers the generic forms of collective living as opposed to their mutating manifestations in space. The process starts with the design of an initial unit that targets the elderly tenants with their millennial renters and ends with a full “system” of growth with inventive modes of organizations and unexpected relations. From the analysis of modular typologies, spatial layouts, inhabitation patterns and their relationship to the specific site conditions each proposal ultimately reveals an idiosyncratic pattern of domesticity.