The aim of the competition is to integrate the concept of co-living within a housing block.
Register: MAY/09/2021, Submit: MAY/10/2021, Eligibility: Professionals, architects, engineers, students; individually, teams up to 3 members, Fee: Indians: 1,800 INR (Indian rupee), foreigners: 60 EUR (FEB/10 – APR/10/2021); Indians: 2,100 INR, foreigners: 80 EUR (APR/11 – MAY/09/2021); +tax, 15% discount for 5 teams and above, Awards: 1st Prize: 1,00,000 INR (approx. 1,130 EUR), 2nd Prize: 60,000 INR (approx. 680 EUR), 3rd Prize: 40,000 INR (approx. 450 EUR), 10 Honorable Mentions
As more of us flock to urban living in quest of enhanced lives and professions, there is a paradigm shift in the way we live, work, and play. Today, more than half the world’s population lives in cities. The century has witnessed a dramatic population shift from rural to urban to experience the growth dynamism of the world’s metropolises. However, this ‘growth’ is chewing the space and adding a ‘weight’ to the functioning of the cities. The housing stock isn’t growing as fast as their migration and hence there is a resurgence of co-living.
Co-living is becoming a housing model that allows anyone from millennials, young professionals, single women, digital nomads, or individuals relocating to frame their lifestyles with people sharing a common thread. It is the intentional community participating in an increasingly shared economy and the affordability of a convenient housing solution. Co-living is also touted as one of the solutions to the environmental problems, a step towards the phase of the transformation. Furthermore, it is a catalyst for the lost social interactions in the community. The benefits of co-living are myriad as the dynamics are changing; there is an increase in remote job opportunities, sharing of resources is offering benefits to climate and communal living to personal well-being.
Today, the expanse of human construction has withdrawn people from the communal living in the urban areas. As designers, we have the power to link social relationships and health outcomes and create spaces for growth, innovation, culture, and well-being for all individuals. Humans are integrally social and co-living is the novel social connector. The core characteristic of co-living is reconnecting the vibrant communities with people and nature. It is built on the notion of openness and collaboration to cohabit. As architects and designers, we continue to discover solutions to build healthier interactive spaces. Could co-living stem out as the route for a conscious living?
California is the global hub and convergence point of a large number of entrepreneurs, technocrats and creative minds. The larger area is home to thousands of big and small companies that are harbingers of innovation. There are millions of people who are rotating this giant growth turbine. With growing urbanization, immigration and demographics, there’s a shortage of affordable houses in California. Archasm invites architecture students and professionals to design an aspirational self-sufficient ‘Co-living Housing in California’ that facilitates and enhances the experience of community living.
The aim of the competition is to integrate the concept of co-living within a housing block to add the social and community factor that is lacking in these concrete blocks. The participants should strive to implement the idea of co-living on a housing scale where the number of tenements can be economically viable and also become a dynamic and interactive prototype for the world. The idea is to change the perception and stereotype around the existing cold, rigid housing block and create a superfluous, extrovert and harmonious solution to this long pending conundrum. We now live in the phase of work life integration driving the ‘sharing economy.’ This notion of co-living housing will promote solidarity among the residents and inculcate community spirit. Housing shapes the landscape of our everyday lives. It represents safety, ownership, security, and stability and remains the most substantial architectural place we experience in our lives. How can you balance privacy amidst communality in co-living houses? In what way can you create collaborative spaces that provide meaningful interventions for the people of today?
Architecture has the supremacy to remove the barriers; it holds the potential to set the stage for encounters and social interactions. A healthy design can commit to the well-being of the occupants. Co-living houses create a platform to speculate and form a cohesive spatial society through resource sharing. The competition stands on designing a ‘spatial and modular prototype’ of co-housing that offers diversity, flexibility, community, and sustainability to all.
SITE
- Location: Cupertino, California
- Latitude: 37°19’55” N, 122°04’40” W
- Site Area: 30,000 m2 (approx.)
- Minimum Occupancy: 1000 people
PROGRAM
The housing should incorporate individual or shared living units with a host of shared functions and facilities that promote holistic living and wellness. The participants should build around community living and include different cultural and social spaces as per their narrative. Exemplary common spaces like reading rooms, meditation areas, sports facilities, open air theatres etc. can be a part of housing. The housing should have a utopian foundation and try to achieve all aspects of self-sufficient living. The sharing of assets that encourages sociocultural integration with measures like recycling, low-energy use by adapting passive techniques, energy harvesting, water conservation, waste management, urban farming etc. is the foundation of sustainable co-living.
All these functions aim to direct the participants towards better design appropriation. The participants are free to add or subtract to the above-mentioned functions but keeping the essence of the brief intact.
website | archasm.in |