LAYER-ed Home: Extended Layer Home
The Site & Project Background Explained Here – Office2Resi: Adaptive *LAYER-ed Home is a group project. *Extended Layer Home is an individual project by the author. Concept Statement Extended Layer Home overcomes the lack of social interaction within urban settings through the superimposition of the space with neighbors. Users can expand and shrink the level of privacy flexibly, further merging the space with the neighbors. Concept & Background The space like the stoop, the elevated platform front of the brownstone, worked as a communal space to mingle with neighbors. These stoops also were an open and inviting extension of the home. However, when a living space moved up to high-rise apartments, this stoop-like space became limited to hallways with no social interaction. Only the brief nods and quick greetings last in the hallway, making people more isolated as they move into the city. User Profile & Unit Info Extended layer home is a medium-sized house model for LAYER-ed Home, which can be suitable for an extended family or even further for a multigenerational family. An example can be an empty nester who takes care of one of the senior parents, and their child as a guest who works outside of the city and comes back during the weekends. The major issues or conflicts that could occur in this family house might include a generation gap and clashes in different lifestyles and timelines. I believe this kind of conflict can be resolved through a decent amount of conversation between family members. Therefore, a layout with fewer doors and walls will increase the level of communication and allow them to experience the bond of the family. The use of movable partitions can help them manage privacy and flexibly shape the space to be used for various activities. The two stories of community space in this residential building always become their extension or alternative to their home space. The presence of these families on the floor makes the generations of the community diverse. Design Process I put the two units together to see the possibilities of sharing space with neighbors rather than designing each unit. The existing condition had columns in the middle, and I dealt with them by setting a grid along them. It is for the best usage of columns in the space by providing order into the space helping the alignment and circulation to be fluent. It also gives certain areas to locate the programs. I classified the programs that had to be fixed or could be flexible and located the fixed spaces together to have maximum flexible spaces. For example, the bathroom and the kitchen had to be fixed due to water pipes, and the mudroom will be fixed where the front door is located. From here, I found the possibility of how the dining space could be shared with the neighbor. Dining is the most socializing act in the family’s life. Making this experience extend and merge with the neighbors not only makes the social interaction diverse but allows the family to take a larger possession of the space. Prefabricated Modules LAYER-ed Home offers various modular designs and lets the customers choose and combine their preferences. At this time, I imagined a family who wanted to have enough space for yoga, reading space, a private working zone, and a projector screen zone. To make all of the list of needs above happen in the small space, modules are designed to slide along the track system to close up the space that the family does not need at the moment and open up the space they need from time to time. The spatial solution followed below demonstrates one of the maximized usage of the sliding modules in a given area. Sliding Track System The tracks are anchored to the columns and modules are sliding linearly. The two trackways overlapping at the corner allow the modules to stop at some point so that the modules do not clash together. The left corner shows the full extension of the space into a big living space, and the right corner shows the full shrunken spaces as three bedrooms. This sliding track system operates by the tracks above and the wheels below the modules. The right drawing shows some idea of HVAC, conduits, and sprinkler system to align with the track grid line to make the space look more organized. Sectional Perspectives Plans & Details Dining Space When it is not dining time, this space works as two clearly divided entryways. The family can unlock the latch on the foldable dining table that is fixed in the middle of the space, and slide the module to the side, making the dining space for their own. When they agree to merge the space with neighbors for a shared dining experience, they can fold down both dining tables and share the long countertop. |