SPINE

Fall 2024 | UC Berkeley CED
Final Project, Housing

The studio, “UNLOAD / DECODE,” investigates the notion that good architecture, specifically in housing, must be subservient to the planometric code-enforced condition that all units must have 2 means of egress. Hypothetically releasing ourselves of these limitations, the work explores how elevation, figure, and facade can create good architecture and good housing. Instead, circulation can connect the urban and the domestic experience to create better living.

The following project explores a cluster-model of housing that features both family-scale and apartment-scale units. Each unit accesses enclosed patio spaces that serve 2 purposes: egress towards circulation cores and patio extensions of the living room to be domesticated by residents - much like the front-porch model of the suburban south. The oblique, with alternation, creates pockets of visual privacy and varying patio experiences.

The clusters are all connected by a central spine that engages the vertical circulation cores created by the oblique. Also enclosed, the spine further extends the patios it connects and offers those residents an intimate neighborly street we find in suburban towns across the US while still maintaining high densities of the prompt [63 units, 121 beds, 39600 SF].